I always loved the idea of the time capsule. There’s one I mentioned at the 1939 World’s Fair site in Queens, not to be opened until  6939 AD. There’s the one in my parents’ back yard that I buried for future kids that includes a slew of Garbage Pail Kids, Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” on cassette, and Pop Rocks- my favorite candy at the time.

In 1999, the American Museum of Natural History decided to follow suit, and held a contest to design a time capsule that would remain on display a the museum- and not to be opened until the year 3000. 6939 AD, 3000 AD, these are some optimistic people.

Anyway, the winner was Valencian architect-engineer Santiago Calatrava, the designer of the wing-like new PATH station, with his twisted and gleaming silver sculpture/capsule, which resembles an abstract infinity sign.


The contents of the capsule are sort of strange. First of all, the town of Fountain, Colorado had a large portion, as it was designated as the “archetypal suburban American town,” which included bar codes and an anti-shoplifting tag from WalMart (what the hell?!), a unicorn Beanie Baby, barbed wire, a firearms registration form, a pager, and dog tags. Basically proving to the year 3000 that Fountain, Colorado is primarily rednecks.

Other items include: a soccer jersey from Brazil, condoms from Zimbabwe, Penicillin from France, archives from New York Times Magazine, hair samples from a ton of people plus Dolly the cloned sheep, a bunch of books, Post-it notes and an Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet, amongst a lot of other things. This is what was deemed important to preserve.

Hmmph.

What: New York Times Capsule

Who: Santiago Calatrava

Where: The American Museum of Natural History, 79 Street And Central Park West