Finally! One hundred years have passed. It’s time to open the time capsule in Kansas City, Missouri. 

People put the capsule in a World War I memorial back in 1924. The memorial rises 217 feet into the Kansas City skyline. 

Removing the capsule “was not easy,” says Christopher Warren. He is the chief curator of the National World War I Museum and Memorial. “There was no door to open and pull the time capsule out.”

Crews had to drill through 18 inches of concrete and limestone.

Then there was another problem. The time capsule included 1920s-era film. The film contained nitrate. Nitrate breaks down over time. It burns easily. The police department bomb squad came for the opening just in case. 

“Nothing caught on fire,” says Mr. Warren. That meant the artifacts stayed in good shape. “Maybe not as interesting as . . . if things would have exploded.”

Mr. Warren showed the contents to an audience filled with school kids on Wednesday. What was inside the capsule? Newspapers. A copy of the Constitution. A Bible. A copy of the American declaration of war from April 1917. A tube of seeds. A letter from President Calvin Coolidge. (Mr. Coolidge was the U.S. president from 1923 to 1929.) 

The capsule was also supposed to hold a note from General John J. Pershing. That famous general helped the United States and its allies win World War I. But what the note said was a bit unexpected. It explained that the time capsule committee members reached out to General Pershing. But they received no reply. 

Mr. Warren joked, “Ladies and gentlemen, you know what this is? This is a 100-year-old out-of-office memo. General Pershing is on vacation but will respond to your email when he returns to the office. That’s OK. He’s still an American hero.”

Museum leaders immediately made plans to create another time capsule. What would you put in a time capsule? How would you represent your home and your place in history?

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. — Psalm 90:12