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ever been found, Westinghouse prepared The Book of the Record of the Time Capsule . Thousands of copies were printed on acidfree paper with fade-resistant ink and dispersed to libraries and monasteries throughout the world, even in Tibet. Among other information, the book contained the latitude and longitude for the capsule’s location, a wise precaution because the concrete marker in Flushing Meadows, where the fair took place, has been reduced in size over the years.”
    Another image appeared, showing an array of various objects.
    “And what did the capsule contain?” Professor Murdock asked. “What were the precious items that the designers felt would best show a society five thousand years in the future the things that made 1939 significant? An alarm clock. A can opener. A fountain pen. A nail file. A toothbrush. A Mickey Mouse cup.”
    Someone in the audience laughed.
    “There were numerous other items, but these examples suggest how difficult it is to decide what’s important in any society. Will there be can openers in the future? Alarm clocks and nail files? Perhaps the things we take most for granted are what a future world will find most incomprehensible. To echo the title of a novel that was placed in the capsule, all cultures eventually vanish, gone with the wind. The 1939 World’s Fair was proud to tell the future what the world was like at that moment in history. But there’s a desperation in the thoroughness with which the capsule was prepared, as if the designers were afraid they’d be forgotten.”
    A new image showed what appeared to be a sprawling castle.
    “This is the campus at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, where I teach,” Professor Murdock said. “The idea for the Westinghouse capsule originated there in 1936. Oglethorpe’s then-president, Thornwell Jacobs, drained an indoor swimming pool and filled it with thousands of items, including microfilmed pages from encyclopedias along with everyday objects such as a toilet brush, a lipstick, a grapefruit corer, a fly swatter, Lincoln Logs, and an ampule of Budweiser beer. The project was so ambitious that Jacobs didn’t complete it until 1940, one year after the World’s Fair. As a result, Westinghouse received credit for creating the first time capsule, even though the idea was borrowed. Jacobs used a burial metaphor and called his project the Crypt of Civilization.”
    Balenger heard a noise behind him. Turning in the shadows, he noted that a man and woman were leaving. At the exit, they whispered to Karen Bailey. The man pointed to his watch. Karen nodded with understanding.
    The flash of a new image made Balenger look forward. He saw Nazi soldiers frozen in mid-goose-step. The image became a series that showed the rubble of bombed buildings, tanks marked with swastikas, piles of bodies in death camps, and the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb.
    “When Jacobs conceived of the Crypt of Civilization, it’s possible that the ravages of the Great Depression made him skeptical about the future of civilization. Perhaps his goal wasn’t to brag to the future, as the Westinghouse time capsule did, but rather to preserve something he feared was in danger of being lost. Certainly, by 1940, when the Crypt was sealed, pessimism was rampant as the German army stormed through Europe. In a document Jacobs placed in the Crypt, he said, ‘The world is engaged in burying our civilization forever, and here in this crypt we leave it to you.’”
    Balenger heard other movement behind him. Again turning, he noticed a second couple leaving the shadowy room. He frowned.
    “The Crypt survived, but most aren’t that fortunate,” Professor Murdock continued. “Their containers aren’t water resistant, or else their contents include organic substances that rot. Moreover, the accidents of human nature defeat the best intentions. An ambitious town in California deposited a total of seventeen time capsules and lost every one of them. At a high school in