A 100-year old time capsule was cracked open from the cornerstone of a WWI memorial in Kansas City on Wednesday.
Before the unveiling of the capsule, which contained a letter from President Calvin Coolidge among other contents, a bomb squad was called to open the case due to concerns that ill-preserved nitrate film could cause a fire.
The Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, features a museum and a massive 217-foot tall tower dedicated to the soldiers of WWI. Museum excavators had to drill through 18-inches of concrete to get to the capsule which was embedded in the tower’s base.
“It was not easy. There was no door to open and pull the time capsule out,” said the museum’s curator, Christopher Warren.
The 1917 Declaration of War, crop seeds, a copper plate engraving of a front cover of the Kansas City Star newspaper and a letter from Allied general John Pershing were also inside the capsule, according to reports.