A Newsletter of the White River Valley Museum January 2002

Opening the Time Capsules by Dr. Tina Brewster Wray, Curator of Collections   The year "sixty-nine" now marks the sealed space With pictures and signatures tucked in this place. So let the time-capsule lock up our past With a prayer for the future and a peace that will last. Marguerite Arabel Wing (written for sealing of WRVM time-capsule)   The 1969 time-capsule project was conceived and organized by Museum board member Joe Koch. As part of the activities surrounding the construction of the new museum building, donors to the building fund were invited to create their own personal time-capsule - sealed in galvanized pipe - to be sunk into concrete near the museum entrance. Eighteen time capsules were contributed and were buried on July 31, 1969, with the intention of opening them in 100 years. The 2001 renovations and new landscaping of the museum made it necessary to remove the concrete slab that contained the time capsules. Several of the capsules were damaged during the removal process, so it was decided to open them to check on the contents. Upon discovering that they contained primarily paper items that were already showing signs of deterioration from 32 years of burial, it was decided that they all should be opened in the interest of preservation. Installing the time capsules, July 31, 1969. Left to right: Ed Freeman, Clarence Shoff, Joe Koch, Alice Koch, Jim Shaughnessy, Maynard Titus. The eighteen time capsules were contributed by a variety of individuals, clubs and businesses. Given the restricted space in the capsules (metal pipes 13 to 26.5" long and 2 to 2.5" in diameter) their contents were limited to paper items and small objects. Items in the time capsules included: newspaper clippings, family and club histories, newsletters and programs, stamps, coins, business and credit cards, etc. A complete inventory was made of each capsule, and those items of relevance to Valley history will be added to the museum's family history files, vertical files, archives or artifact collection. List of Time Capsule Contributors 1. Scarff Motors 2. Wayland Arms Apartments 3. Miles Sand & Gravel 4. Kiwanis Club of Kent 5. Auburn Women's Club 6. Auburn Garden Club 7. Auburn Coin Club 8. Manhattan & Boeing Employees Coin Clubs, Green River, Auburn 9. Kent Rotary Club 10. American Legion Post 15, Kent 11. Joe & Alice Koch 12. John & Theo Ham 13. Lena McGonigle 14. Van Winkle Family 15. Betty Roberson 16. John Throop & Wayne Burgess 17. Wayne Heisserman 18. Clarence Shoff Selected Time Capsule Inventories Auburn Women's Club History of Auburn Women's Club History of Valley Art Association List of Women's Club presidents Women's Club Schedule, 1968-69 Time-capsule poem Flier for songbook, "Songs for Washington Club women" Certificate, Washington State Association of Minute Women Newspaper clipping relating to Auburn Women's Club Ball-point pen 2 pairs of earrings 1969 6-cent stamp Metal pen nib Lena McGonigle 15-page handwritten account of family &  local history Wayland Arms Apartments History of Wayland Arms Apt. Complex Letters from Wayland Arms Apt. Residents Selma Sandland & Gladys Beck 12 photographs of Wayland Arms Apartment and residents   Dr. Tina Brewster Wray