Sep
10
Centennial Perspectives: 1940 Time Capsule
September 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment
In 1940 the BGSU Senior class presented a Colorado Spruce to the University as their class remembrance gift. This tree was presented and planted in conjunction with the University’s first Honors Day program on May 17. This ceremony included the placement of a time capsule underneath the tree. This time capsule contained the names of the students of the class of 1940, class records, a copy of the “Bee Gee News” and clippings of current events from a global perspective. The capsule was to be dug up 75 years after its burial, making the upcoming event to occur in 2015. However, in 1958 construction workers putting in a sewer line to a new building uncovered the capsule and handed it over to the University authorities. The top had worked loose, and many of the contents were damaged by water. The contents were to be dried out, returned to the container and planted again near the tree. While the contents were dried out and replaced in the capsule, the container was never buried. In 1966, a student assisting in remodeling the Maintenance Building found the heavy container and opened it, discovering the contents to be those of the 1940 class time capsule. The contents were then given a home in the journalism office. A professor of sociology, Dr. Donald Longworth was a sophomore at the time of the time capsule’s burial, and actually dug the hole that housed the capsule. He recalls the tree dying and the replacement having been moved to make way for the building of Founders Quadrangle around 1955. As the capsule was never replaced in the ground after being unearthed in 1958, the myth that it is still buried in some unknown area on campus has now been disproved.
Sources:
BG News “Many are Named in University’s First Honors Day” 22 May 1940. Page 2.
BG News “Workman Finds ‘Time’ Capsule” 31 July 1958. Page 4
BG News “Campus ‘Time Capsule’ Uncovered 49 Years Early” 9 Feb. 1966. Page 1
BG News “Professor Recalls Time Capsule Story” 16 February 1966. Page 4.
Key Yearbook 1940 edition. Page 53.