essay on time capsule

Time Capsule Discovery: the 1960s Essay

Introduction, the drawing, the vinyl record, the newspaper article, moon landing pin and ribbon, conclusions and lessons to learn.

The most ordinary and casual things can tell a story of the entire society and epochs. The time capsule created in the 1960s can also shed light on the way people lived, hoped, and behaved. The time capsule found contains such items as a stained shirt with a ripped sleeve, a vinyl record, a newspaper article (dated 1963), Moon landing pin and ribbon, a child’s drawing revealing a nuclear bomb explosion and such words as the USA, the USSR, Cuba, war.

The child’s drawing is the first item to be considered. The drawing displays the nuclear explosion, and there are such words as Cuba, the USA, the USSR, and war. It is clear that the drawing was made in 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis took place. The drawing suggests that the child feared that a war could start. Those were quite common fears for Americans in the 1960s as the Cold War was in its prime. The Missile Crisis was a 13-day negotiation between the USA and the USSR concerning the latter’s decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba as a reaction to the US activities in Turkey and Italy. The USA imposed a military blockade to prevent Soviet ships from delivering materials (including missiles) to the missiles launch facilities that had been under construction in Cuba. The event is significant as it reveals the strength of diplomacy since the Third World War was about to start. The two superpowers managed to agree on vital points and managed to restrain from a massive military conflict. The crisis also showed people that the risk of war was very high and it was essential to keep the Cold War in its cold state, as humanity could be destroyed because of political differences.

The stained shirt with a ripped sleeve has an inscription saying “I’m 14 and against segregation” and it has quite specific damages as if the person was attacked by a dog (or dogs). The analysis of the item shows that the shirt was worn during the so-called Children’s Crusade of 1963. This event was one of the awakening experiences of many Americans. In Birmingham, Alabama, Rev. James Bevel organized a march of children who studied in local schools (Tullos, 2011). Those were mainly teenagers and youth. They wanted to go to the mayor and reveal their protest concerning the segregation. However, the head of police Connor (nicknamed “Bull”) did not let the protestors reach their target place. He ordered to use water hoses and police dogs to make the protestors go home. Many children were arrested, and many got quite serious injuries.

This event can be regarded as one of the stimuli that encouraged people (irrespective of their race, ethnicity, age, gender) to become more active and stand against the US segregation. The leaders of the Civil Rights Movement often mentioned the courageous deed of children who were not afraid to fight and suffer for their beliefs and, more importantly, for a better society. Many people were inspired and outraged at the same time. The nation saw the ugly face of the old order (which was the face of Bull Connor for many). More and more people joined the movement that managed to change American society. Therefore, it is possible to note that the event was an important milestone in the history of the USA.

The vinyl record contained one piece only, and it was the speech of one of the famous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. This was the eminent speech “I Have a Dream” delivered in 1963. This piece is regarded as iconic, and it is known far beyond the USA. The speech could be regarded as an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement as it revealed the deepest hopes and desires of millions of Americans. Interestingly, King was advised not to say the words as he had mentioned his dream several times before (Younge, 2013). However, he repeated the words several times throughout the speech, and it became the mantra of millions.

It is necessary to note that the famous speech was an important milestone in the history of the Civil Rights Movement as it was recorded and millions of people could hear King as the speech was broadcast (unlike many of his speeches delivered before). The speech was very emotional, which made it a symbol of the entire movement. People could be reluctant to stand out against the norms and the society for some specific social benefits, but they could not remain intact as they simply had to fight for their dream. These words also define the epoch as Americans managed to fight for many dreams and make them come true.

The newspaper article is concerned with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The article is a report including the details of the assassination as well as the investigation. It also contains a photo where the First Lady is trying to help her husband. The assassination was one of the most serious strikes for the nation. Piereson (2013) stresses that the event deployed American liberalism. In 1963, the President went to Dallas where the support among voters was quite low (Piereson, 2013). He was shot when he was in an open car smiling at his voters moving across a street. It is still believed that there was a conspiracy, which could never be revealed.

The surveys showed that approximately 60% of Americans supported Kennedy, so the chances that he would be chosen for the second term were very high. He was an inspirational leader who was loved, which was not very common (at least, at such levels). The assassination of Kennedy became a great milestone in history as the era of idealism and liberalism was over. The epoch of radicalism came into existence. Kennedy was often regarded as a martyr who fought for progress and social justice. Piereson (2013) notes that the assassination paved the way for radicalism. However, it is also possible to note that this was one of the examples of the rising radicalism in American society.

The moon landing pin and ribbon are also items in the capsule. They are associated with one of the most important events in the history of the USA and the entire humanity. The item celebrates American astronauts’ landing on the Moon. In 1969, Neil Armstrong made the historic footprint on the surface of the Earth’s satellite. This footprint was a great achievement of scientists, including American and Russian great minds, who had worked on the development of the necessary technologies for decades (LaFeber, Polenberg, & Woloch, 2015). Americans took pride in their nations’ achievement, technological progress as well as the bravery of their fellow citizens who were courageous enough to walk on a different planet for their country.

It is impossible to underestimate the significance of the event for the USA and the entire humanity. First, this landing achieved its major goal, which was associated with the US rivalry with the USSR (LaFeber et al., 2015). The USA also proved that its economic and political model was superior to the one used by the communist world. Of course, the landing on the moon as any other NASA project enriched the knowledge base of the American scientists as well as the global scientific world. The event had a great significance for the entire world as people understood that they were capable of the most outstanding and unbelievable things.

In conclusion, it is possible to state that the period in question was the epoch of great changes that resulted in the development of the nation as it is now. That period is characterized by technological breakthroughs, social activism, political assassinations, the birth and sometimes death of great hopes and dreams. The major lesson to be learned is that people can and should fight and try to make their dreams come true as it will result in the creation of a better world. Americans learned their lesson and used the tools introduced in the 1960s for their fight.

LaFeber, W., Polenberg, R., & Woloch, N. (2015). The American century: A history of the United States since 1941 . New York, NY: Routledge.

Piereson, J. (2013). Camelot and the cultural revolution: How the assassination of John Kennedy shattered American liberalism . New York, NY: Encounter Books.

Tullos, A. (2011). Alabama gateway: The political imaginary and the heart of Dixie . Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Younge, G. (2013). The speech: The story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream . Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

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Time Capsule Essay Examples

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Pyramids , History , World , Egypt , Middle East , People , Future , The World

Published: 03/08/2023

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Pyramids located in Egypt should be presented in a time capsule for future generations because of their cultural and architectural worth. The future generations should be able to discover the pyramids because it is one of the greatest ancient monuments in the world. The construction took place when Egypt was one of the most powerful countries in the world rules by pharos. Pyramids represent the beautiful historical structure and the great architectural achievement that remains to be a mystery in the modern time. They are very big and they reflect the power of the king who dominated the ancient Egypt. Pyramids were built from the beginning of the old kingdom until the end of the Ptolemaic period which took place in the 4th century AD. These architectural wonders are very special because they were the tallest monuments built 2500 years ago and they are represent the remains of one great ancient civilization. The pyramids represent the technological achievement as well as the development in all areas and the power of ancient Egypt. Their decorative purpose is obvious although their real purpose and the building technique remains a secret. They are the legacy of ancient people for the future generations because of their monumentality. This is a unique work of art and such pyramids exist only in Egypt nowadays. What is remarkable and awe-striking is the fact that pyramids were built of stone without the aid of any other materials. Nobody knows how that could have been achieved in ancient times because it would be difficult to make such a construction today. The technology the ancient Egyptians used is remarkable and it is an enigma for the world of today. People cannot explain how the pyramids were built, but it is obvious that these works of art are sacred and that they represent the luxurious lifestyle. They are here to be admired and that is why they have to be preserved for future generations. Ancient Egyptians did not have technology and any kind of machines which would be necessary to build this kind of structure, but pyramids still exist and defy time. They are indestructible because of their built and they will be preserved because they are wonders of the architectural art. Two million stones were used for the construction and there were many physical workers included in this extensive labor. The final product is magnificent and people from all over the world admire it and visit Egypt each year in order to be able to see these structures in person. This kind of technology was very advanced, but unfortunately people today have no information of the exact way the pyramids were built. They represent the greatest achievement in engineering throughout history and the work which is left behind id extraordinary. The fact that the pyramids stand the test of time is astonishing and attractive to many people, both professionals as well as common people. Modern buildings are a good choice as well, but pyramids will last forever and they represent the mechanical techniques, techniques of measurement and of design used in ancient times. They tell the story of an advanced ancient civilization to the rest of the world. Pyramids are the legacy of the ancient world to the modern world and they are a good historical example which should be preserved for the future as well. Maybe the future generations will be able to reveal the secret of the pyramids because it is a great challenge.

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The Paradox of Time Capsules

A form of futurism, and a way of bottling up context in its purest form: temporal treasures, an Object Lesson

Few consumer experiences deliver a pleasure as pure as breaking a freshness seal. From instant coffee to children’s vitamins, there’s something quasi-mystical about being the first encounter a vacuum. A similar fascination fuels romantic notions of archaeology in the popular imagination. The embalmed Ramses II was always more alive to me than the pasty explorer standing in his way. As a kid, poring over photos of the excavation, I remember feeling that time had not merely stood still, but reversed.

An entirely different sort of imaginary communion takes place when we speculate about the future. If our entertainment reveals a startling lack of imagination in this regard, it isn’t hard to see why: The genre demands that authors craft a believable future from the narrow perspective of the present. As a result, people tend to rehash what’s come before or—worse—allegorize what’s happening now by simply adding some gadgets and changing the date.

Time capsules provide one of the best means to address the collective need for belonging, past and future. Whether in the form of a shoebox buried in the yard or a satellite programmed to return to Earth thousands of years from now, the paradoxical goal is the representative objectification of daily living. They seek the purity of context itself. As a result, the message they send is equal parts altruism and egocentrism, hope and despair, all underwritten by persistent anxieties over individual mortality and the end of the world.

Time capsules are vehicles for self-commemoration, a means to ensure that future anthropologists, scientists, and historians include us in the stories they tell. Other forms of art share this same lofty goal, as when Walt Whitman declares in the opening of “Song of Myself” (1855):

           I CELEBRATE myself,            And what I assume you shall assume,            For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

But time capsules go a step further by insisting upon the actual atoms rather than just the words used to describe them. They celebrate the talismanic quality of their objects, packaged to deliver the vicarious experience of having occupied a particular cultural moment: the belief that these time-bound materials of timelessness speak for themselves.

The Crypt of Civilization, sealed in the bedrock underneath Oglethorpe University in Brookhaven, Georgia, effectively launched the modern time capsule movement in 1936. Thornwell Jacobs, inspired by the Egyptian tomb openings in the 1920s, argued that because 6,177 years had passed since the establishment of the Egyptian calendar, his own Crypt should be opened 6,177 years in the future. Jacobs’s rationale suggests the importance of narrative in our handling of deep time, specifically our need to impose a quantifiable beginning, middle, and end. It becomes a story with ourselves perpetually at its center.

The Crypt, along with the 1939 World’s Fair Westinghouse capsule originally termed a “time bomb,” are the two best known capsules of the pre-war era. Both contain articles selected by the then National Bureau of Standards. Among those found in the Crypt are seed samples, dental floss, a fake bird, six Artie Shaw recordings, a Lionel model train, and a doll. The Westinghouse capsule further divides its items into five categories: small articles of common use, textiles and materials, miscellaneous, essays on microfilm, and RKO newsreels—all chosen to represent 20th century American life. To single out these items is also to assume they will expire. Otherwise, what’s the point?

If all encapsulated objects are memento mori, then what about the technologies used to experience them? Won’t they, too, disappear? With this in mind, the Westinghouse capsule includes instructions on how to build a microfilm viewer and a motion picture projector. Even better is the Crypt’s “language integrator,” a hand-powered device designed to teach 1,500 words of Basic English using the “Nickelodeon principle.” (How it actually works is something of a mystery now that the papers detailing its operation have been lost to time.) When objects become disassociated from their attending technologies we lose entire worlds.

One of the defining characteristics of a time capsule is that its date of reopening is set in advance. Otherwise, how would one know what to put inside? Let’s say you’re choosing a single item to be placed in a capsule opened 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 years from now: The object should be different in each case, and that difference will have everything to do with what you imagine life to be like in each of those futures. Time capsules are about futurity, about our sincere belief that we author our own present by providing the future with the means to author its past.

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Time capsules are a form of self-invention, then, but one that can quickly morph into self-caricature. Particularly in times of distress, humans are susceptible to a certain utopian impulse that distills who they wish to be from who they really are. This is where the shoebox-in-the-backyard variety of time capsule tends to reveal its underlying motive: Vindicate my unpopularity according to some imagined future standard! Prove that my quirks are ahead of their time! Let history bear out the value of my life! The central paradox of all time capsule projects: Their deepest truths come from our failure to accurately represent our own current reality. And the overabundance we commemorate is a symptom of the missing things that go unacknowledged.

“Try to have a mix of items from the sublime to the trivial,” recommends the International Time Capsule Society in their guidelines for constructing the ideal cache. I can already imagine the culture wars. The triviality of leaves of grass versus the sublimity of Leaves of Grass . Or is it the other way around? It’s hard to tell, since no object in and of itself is ordinary or extraordinary—it’s the context that matters. This is precisely what slips away the moment the capsule is sealed.

If manufactured time capsules tell one type of story about us, accidental capsules tell another. (Think of the Titanic sealed at the bottom of the sea.) Sudden, unpredictable and catastrophic conditions capture moments in time and the difference in the stories they tell demonstrates that historical objectivity is more easily achieved through destruction than creation. Different from either traditional time capsules or stockpiles like the Pharaohs’ tombs (the unsealing of which is a desecration), accidental time capsules afford the possibility of retrieving context alongside content—objects in their proper place, but no longer in the appropriate time. Because disasters come about with little or no warning, people have no opportunity to muck up the reality of their daily living through selectivity, distortion, and suppression. Catastrophe best reveals who we are.

Pompeii, with its plaster-cast victims, is a classic example of how people and objects can together reveal context. One cannot underestimate the uncanny feeling at seeing a villa frozen in the midst of its use, or a man and woman spooning in their final moments, thinking not of us but of themselves. But if accidental capsules eliminate one kind of tampering with reality, Pompeii’s rediscovery by Domenico Fontana in 1599 suggests another. Fontana reburied a number of murals and other objects in keeping with obscenity standards (the fertility god Priapus’s enormous phallus was especially unsettling). That this portion of Pompeii wasn’t made available for public viewing until 2000 reminds us how the present always shapes the past by determining our access to it.

More recently, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl has produced perhaps the largest and most complete of these accidental capsules. The Exclusion Zone or Zone of Alienation, a 30-kilometer radius around the reactor’s core, has effectively preserved some 2,600 square kilometers as they were when the evacuations were first ordered. Moreover, this region, once home to some 350,000 people, may not be suitable for human habitation for another 20,000 years. Can you imagine what this region will say to the rest of the world? Of course not. But perhaps you want to. And that’s the point.

Fascination for this post-disaster landscape has generated at least two types of consumers. The first are the tourists who embark on day trips from Kiev to witness firsthand the power plant and surrounding environs, already overgrown with wildlife unchecked by man. (Along the way they may run into one or more of the samosely, the local name for illegal residents who have refused evacuation and continue to live in the otherwise-abandoned townships.) The second are those who risk no exposure whatsoever by vicariously experiencing the area through such video games as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , the former of which imagines the Zone to imbue its samosely with special powers like ESP and a hive mentality. What the latter group enjoys is context in the absence of objects themselves—pure simulation.

Catastrophe’s direct access to the past is counterbalanced by the impulse it engenders to ensure for our collective future. This humanist urge is reflected in some of the more compelling contemporary time-capsule projects. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, for example, houses some 2 billion seeds in an effort to provide insurance against some future global crisis. Similarly, the Frozen Ark project serves as a DNA database for endangered animals. And the Rosetta Project aims to preserve some 1,500 languages in the face of their imminent disappearance by cross-referencing them on a nickel disc, the magnification of which provides the clarity and readability of a print book. Along with beauty these projects together demonstrate that death is the mother of archive.

One of the more outlandish and Ozymandian contemporary capsule projects is the one proposed by The Long Now Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering responsible long-term thinking framed within a context of deep time. To promote this shift they’ve developed the Clock of the Long Now, a self-sustaining 10,000 year clock and a capsule for time itself. The clock is intended to serve as “a mechanism and a myth” to counterbalance civilization’s “pathologically short attention span.” The goal of long-term thinking, we can assume, is no less than the elimination of the very need for time capsules at all. Instead, we have past, present, and future reimagined as one all-inclusive now, in which a single context stretches across time.

This long-term thinking will, one hopes, lead to more responsible global consumerism. Without it, the time capsule will lose more than its charm. Nuclear waste, greenhouse gases, an island of trash in the middle of the Pacific: Hard as we might try to leave behind a legacy of materials worthy of our collective struggle to exceed our nature, these efforts will likely be overshadowed by the accumulation of debris that is only meant to be its byproduct.