Ein Museum der sehr fernen Zukunft

 

Preparing to cosign the Time Capsule to its 5,000 year resting place are A.W. Robertson, Westinghouse Electric Company’s chairman of the board (left) and Grover A. Whalen, president of the New York World’s Fair.

One of the first exhibits to receive attention at the New York World Fair 1939/40 was the Westinghouse Time Capsule, which was not to be opened for 5 millennia (the year 6939). The time capsule was a tube containing writings by Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann, copies of Life Magazine, a Mickey Mouse watch, a Gillette safety razor, a kewpie doll, a dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, millions of pages of text on microfilm, and much more. The capsule also contained seeds of foods in common use at the time: (alfalfa, barley, carrots, corn, cotton, flax, oats, rice, soy beans, sugar beets, tobacco, and wheat, all sealed in glass tubes). The time capsule is located at 40°44′34.089″N 73°50′43.842″W, at a depth of 50 feet (15 m). A small stone plaque marks the position.