Revealing the Contents of a 100-year-old Time Capsule

On April 22, 2013, the Oklahoma Historical Society in partnership with the First Lutheran Church unearthed a 6-ft x 3-ft x 3-ft (1.83m x 0.91m x 0.91m) chest, buried in the church’s basement exactly 100 years prior. Dubbed the ‘Century Chest‘, the project was created in 1913 by Virginia Sohlberg of the Ladies Aid

On April 22, 2013, the Oklahoma Historical Society in partnership with the First Lutheran Church unearthed a 6-ft x 3-ft x 3-ft (1.83m x 0.91m x 0.91m) chest, buried in the church’s basement exactly 100 years prior.

Dubbed the ‘Century Chest‘, the project was created in 1913 by Virginia Sohlberg of the Ladies Aid Society as a fundraiser to help the church purchase a new pipe organ which is still in use today! Space inside the chest was auctioned off to the public to raise money.

The Century Chest’s artifacts were impeccably preserved in airtight, waterproof containers. The chest itself was buried under a 12-inch (30.5 cm) slab of concrete. Removing the chest took over 11 hours and involved removing two 600-pound chunks of concrete and using an engine hoist to get the chest out of its ‘tomb’.

The contents of the chest were unveiled at a live event and Downtown OKC, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, documented the entire experience and posted the photos to an 81-picture gallery on Facebook.

The complete contents will be preserved and exhibited at the Oklahoma History Center later this year. It will be fascinating to discover the content located inside the countless sealed packages and envelopes, as well as going through the box of recorded messages.

Sources
- Oklahoma Historical Society Microsite
- The Oklahoma Gazette: It’s about time
- Downtown OKC, Inc. Facebook Photo Album
- silvergrove on reddit]
- NewsOK: Century Chest opening draws crowd in Oklahoma City

1. The Daily Oklahoman, April 22, 1913

2. Oklahoma State Flag

Flag made for the Century Chest by Mr. W. R. Clement, originator and designer of the official Flag of the State of Oklahoma. Also included: certificate of adoption of the flag and message of greeting from Mrs. Clement to the city of 2013. [Source: Downtown OKC, Inc.]

3. Desk telephone, Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Co.

4. Edison Graphophone

5. Pen used by President McKinley
to sign the Free Homes Bill

The Century Chest

The First English Lutheran Church Century Chest was the idea of Virginia Sohlberg. Sohlberg had heard of a similar undertaking in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and proposed the idea to the church’s pastor, Newton H. Royer. He approved. The church’s Ladies Aid Society led the project with Virginia Sohlberg as President. The project was to be a fundraiser, offering the public the chance to include their name in a ledger and quilt, purchase space in the chest, or buy tickets to the Century Chest service. The fundraiser would benefit the church which needed funds to cover the cost of a new organ. The full price of the organ was $3,200, half of which was paid by Andrew Carnegie.

The project was embraced by the community as an opportunity to celebrate 1913 Oklahoma and reach out to future generations. Citizens, businesses, community organizations, and legislators participated. The planning of the chest was covered in local newspapers. The project grew beyond the church, beyond Oklahoma City, to the entire state.

[Source: Oklahoma Historical Society]

6. Quilt adorned with signatures of 720 City Builders

Photograph via Downtown OKC, Inc. on Facebook

7. To the descendants of Nathan Samuel Sherman

8. A Tin of Quality Coffee

9. Dress, Brock Dry Goods Co.

10. Recorded Message entitled, “Bedouin Love Song“
by Mr. Merle Bennett, baritone

This is but one of many found from a sealed box of recorded messages.

Inside the Century Chest

The chest contains a variety of objects honoring Oklahoma’s heritage. Included are American Indian artifacts and documents, historical photographs, paintings, poems and musical compositions, coins, family histories, local histories, clothing, various clippings, a special flag, popular technology of the day such as a telephone, phonograph, and camera. A special “Century Chest Edition” of The Oklahoma News newspaper was printed and copies placed in the chest. The chest also includes special messages from the Oklahomans of 1913 to our present-day community. Click Here to view a list of contents.

11. Constitution, Treaties and Laws of the Chickasaw Nation

12. Oklahoma State Fair Expo plate and a Marble

13. Photo of the pastor of the First Lutheran Church, 1913

14. Shoes, Mellon Dry Goods Co.

15. Native American translation Bible (Choctaw)

The 1913 Ceremony

The burial of the Century Chest was marked with a special service on the evening of April 22, 1913. The service included various musical performances, and addresses from Governor Lee Cruce, Oklahoma City Mayor Whit M. Grant, and Reverend Newton H. Royer, D.D., Pastor of the First Lutheran Church. A recording of the ceremony was made and included inside the chest. [Source: Oklahoma Historical Society]

16. Unopened packages and letters

17. “View from the Dam at the Water Works” by Nellie Shepherd

18. “…to our friends of 2013…”

19. Boys suit, Chas. A. Finnegar

20. Costume Royal Mag

100 Years of Commitment

Each year since the chest’s burial, the members of the First Lutheran Church have pledged their commitment to the chest and its creators. The pledge was created by the church members of 1913 to ensure the chest would be protected and honored for future generations of Oklahomans. [Source: Oklahoma Historical Society]

21. Message to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

22. Oklahoma City High School – Course of Study, 1913

23. Evans Hall, University of Oklahoma

24. Newspaper in Cherokee

25. Hat, Kerr Dry Goods Co.

26. More unopened messages

27. “Orchard Scene” by Miss Martha Avey

28. Wax Sealed Letter

29. Messages from the blind of 1913 to the blind of 2013

30. Newspaper – April 22, 2013

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Moving Mona Lisa: The Story of WWII

Photograph by Pierre Jahan/Archives des museés nationaux Beginning in 1938, the threat of war prompted a large-scale evacuation of France’s public art collections. The storage sites chosen for works of art were châteaux, tranquil locations in the heart of the French countryside, far from strategic targets, and thus escaping the imminent danger of bombing.…

Beginning in 1938, the threat of war prompted a large-scale evacuation of France’s public art collections. The storage sites chosen for works of art were châteaux, tranquil locations in the heart of the French countryside, far from strategic targets, and thus escaping the imminent danger of bombing.

On August 28, 1939, the Mona Lisa left the Louvre and on September 3, as war had been declared, a decision was taken to ensure that all of the most precious works would leave the premises by the end of the day.

During the war, Leonardo da Vinci’s smiling maiden would move another five times before being brought back safe and sound. It was an unprecedented journey for the world’s most famous painting.

Moving the Winged Victory of Samothrace

On the Road

Stowed away in several hundred crates; sculptures, decorative objects and 3,690 paintings took to the road. The journey was a logistical feat of packaging and truck loading. The routes of France soon thronged with thirty-seven convoys joining the crowds already leaving the city.

The event was also an opportunity to view, often with unprecedented closeness, the museum’s most iconic works, suddenly brought down from their pedestals: the Winged Victory of Samothrace before it was sent to the Château de Valençay, the Venus de Milo or the Mona Lisa, which would be moved first to Chambord, then Louvigny, the Abbaye de Loc Dieu, the Musée de Montauban and finally to Montal, with the Louvre’s other paintings.

Jacques Jaujard, director of the Musées de France at the time, had the unenviable task of supervising the movements of these stored works, continually under threat from the hazards of an encroaching war. [Source: louvre.fr]

Preparing Venus de Milo for transport

The [German Occupied] Show Must Go On

The Louvre during the Second World War was still a palace at the heart of a capital having experienced one of the longest and most dramatic occupations in its history. The German authorities, eager to return the city of Paris to a semblance of cultural life, ordered the reopening of the museum in September 1940.

This partial opening was merely symbolic, with itineraries indicated in German and many of the galleries and viewing rooms completely empty and abandoned. The signs of war were everywhere: ornamental gardens transformed to grow vegetables, damage caused by nearby bombings, etc. [Source: louvre.fr]

German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt at the Louvre

Name of Rembrandt painting in chalk where the artwork once hanged

The Grande Galerie of the Louvre, empty

The ‘Louvre Sequestration’

During the war, the Nazis plundered works of art from private collections belonging to prominent Jewish families or art dealers. They were meticulously wrapped and protected in preparation for their departure to Germany. This process unfolded in the galleries of the Louvre devoted to Near Eastern antiquities. The area was requisitioned by the Nazis and quickly rendered inaccessible to museum personnel.

After the Nazis seized the Jeu de Paume, which would be used as a further repository for looted works of art, the Louvre sequestration nevertheless continued, occasioning a continual to and fro of art works between both museums, with the result being that Jacques Jaujard was unable to prevent the transfer to the Third Reich of the stolen paintings. [Source:louvre.fr]

Cataloging stolen artworks during the Louvre Sequestration

Loading Peter Paul Rubens’ Marie de’ Medici cycle series

Masterpieces on the Move

Francisco de Goya’s Time and the Old Women

Photograph via NARA

After the War, a new Louvre, transformed by major renovation work and gradually opened to the public between 1945 and 1947. Thanks to the skills and tenacity of those responsible for safeguarding cultural property, all of the museum’s major masterpieces returned to the palace, virtually unscathed.

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