By S. Mastrangelo, 26 March 2026
The Crypt of Civilization was sealed in 1940, stored in Atlanta, Georgia, and won’t be opened until the year 8113. That’s some six-thousand years, and a bit overkill if you ask me. A time capsule sealed off for a century, or even a decade or two, can still be quite meaningful. A time capsule - whether for your local historical society, your city, or your own family - is a great way to preserve your history and stories.
Think about the following:
Will this be opened in 10 years? 25 years? 100? How might life be different than today?
What is important to us today? What do we value in life as a society, or as a family?
What physical objects represent our community? How can we show our daily way of life?
If someone handed you a box of your ancestor’s possessions, what treasures would you hope to find inside?
With your personal answers to these questions in mind, start forming your list. Here are some ideas:
Audio recordings
Use high-quality format that will last, like an archival M Disc, or other archival DVD-R and store properly. Note you may need a special burner (affiliate links).
Save the audio with multiple format type options for the same clips, like WAV and MP3.
Include interviews with family members (or locals for a city capsule). Be sure to say full names and relationships to start each clip.
Children’s items
Artwork, with name and age.
What they are studying in school - perhaps a recent test.
A local yearbook, if not too big and bulky.
A list of slang / memes popular today (6, 7 anyone?)
City / local artifacts
City websites (archive in the Wayback Machine and share a link). This isn’t guaranteed.
Describe struggles facing the city today, such as low-income housing or climate change.
Detailed map of the area with landmarks.
Information about the area’s history.
Parks and Rec activity booklet.
Population and demographic area.
Weather forecast for the area.
Ephemera / other items showcasing current life
A mask or test from covid times.
A newspaper (copied onto archival quality paper).
Screenshots that showed how we actually got news.
A list of bestselling books.
Candy wrapper or other product packaging.
Receipts or bills that show daily life and average prices.
Protest signs, buttons, or stickers.
Concert tickets.
Cost of airline flights.
Favorite foods and recipes (nothing perishable)
What are some average dinners for locals? Favorite meals? Special holiday meals? Desserts? Include pictures.
Are there local specialties, or famous food from this area?
Local business memorabilia
Menus from local restaurants.
Grocery store flyer with prices.
A real estate brochure with current house sale prices.
List of house and apartment rentals.
Movie theatre list of current movies.
Job listings from big companies that seem relevant to today, like AI prompt engineer.
Photo prints on archival paper (lignin free, acid free, carbon-based ink), with labels!
Identify the people, and their relationships to each other. Where was this picture taken? What was it celebrating?
Photos showing downtown area businesses, and people enjoying them
Photos of your neighborhood, with houses and cars
For a personal time capsule, showcase the interior of your home and bedrooms; your workplace, your schools.
Take photos of current technology, like a screenshot of your conversation with an AI model, or of your phone and it’s apps, or of a self-driving car.
Note you can also save photos digitally on archival M Discs or archival quality DVD-R’s, as mentioned above in audio.
Pop culture
What songs or music is popular? Or important to you? Write a playlist. If preserving audio, include a few tracks.
A trendy collectible item, such as Pokémon cards.
Recap what’s happened in pop culture the past few years.
Social media screenshots
From Myspace to Facebook, Twitter to X, Vine to Tik Tock, and everything in between. Preserve your social media handles, screenshots of a few memorable posts or conversations.
If saving media, preserve video files in widely supported archival formats such as MKV (with FFV1), or MPEG-2.
Something that will be harder to find in the future, or that might change.
A penny, or low value currency.
Bus fare token or transit card.
Seeds, dried and stored in an air-tight container.
A written summary of current technology use (go ahead and use AI to write it as an example of it’s writing style!)
Sports memorabilia
Small items from the local teams.
Trading cards.
Ticket stubs.
Written letters, messages
Describe current events and what daily life is like now.
Your favorite memories. For a city, have locals share their favorite times.
Notes from your children (or locals) with name and age.
Predictions and hopes for the future.
Keep in mind that technology will change, and certain items like a “DVD” or “CD” or flash-drive might not be compatible with anything in the future and will also degrade over time. Use archival quality technology.
Paper itself will also degrade, so store those letters and photos carefully. Use acid free ink, paper, tape, and so on. That also means no rubber, plastic, liquids, or anything perishable. Nothing that will leak moisture, grow mold, or attract pests!
For a city or historical time capsule, don’t publish a list of contents - keep it a secret for future generations. But you should include a list on the inside!
Be sure to mark the location of your capsule with a physical plaque, and store indoors if possible. Time the planned opening with a historical celebration, like a city’s bicentennial. It should be clear on the capsule which way is up. It should be packed with the heaviest items on the bottom, with minimal movement of items.