Kathleen,
This is none of my business, and I realize
that this decision was probably not yours to make, but it does beg the
question, "Why open the time capsule so soon?" 1956 was
only fifty years ago, and it's unlikely there would be any information
in the time capsule that is not already known or could not readily be found
elsewhere. To my way of thinking, a time capsule should be kept sealed
for at minimum a century, and preferably for five or ten centuries. It's
a bit like opening the oven ten minutes after putting the cake in to see
how it's cooking. Myself, I would be much more interested in unsealing
a time capsule from 956 or 1456 than one from 1956.
BTW, my organization also has a time
capsule. It was sealed--or actually, the box was locked--in 1990,
on the 50th anniversary of Public Debt becoming a bureau of the Treasury
Department. The plaque asks that it be opened in 2019, on the centennial
of our predecessor, the Public Debt Service. Never mind that our
mission, financing the federal government, as well as our records, predate
the founding of the U.S. Government and the American Revolution. Although
I will retire well before 2019, I intend to bury--or disguise--that time
capsule so deep in the archives that it will be forgotten and inadvertently
kept sealed for a long, long time <wink>.
Like I said, your time capsule is none
of my business, so take my two cents for what little it's worth.
Harry
Harry G. Heiss, Archivist
Bureau of the Public Debt
Department of the Treasury
799 Ninth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20239
[log in to unmask]
202.504.3516 [voice]
202.504.3630 [fax]
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