Marist’s Unsolved Mysteries: The Time Capsule

Revealing the mysteries of the newly found Marist time capsule!

Marist%E2%80%99s+Unsolved+Mysteries%3A+The+Time+Capsule

By Grace Neil '22, Features Editor

      That’s right, folks! You read that right. We have a time capsule! While I was working in my Archival Research class—which is, objectively speaking, the best class at Marist—, we found a letter from 1984 detailing the contents of a time capsule. It is located inside the concrete box outside of the Chapel that displays the terracotta Marist Crest. While we missed the intended date of opening by about 20 years—whoops—, my teachers and I are hoping to pry it open soon. With this amazing flash from the past, I started to wonder what a time capsule from 2021 would look like? Would there be a focus on wide-scale recent events like COVID-19, or would there be more snippets of everyday life? I decided to see what the Marist community would place in such a capsule. 

      I asked Michael Bieze, chair of the fine arts department and one of the overseers of the Marist School archives, and his immediate response was a mask. It’s no surprise why this answer was also common among other people as well. Masks have been a staple of our reality for nearly two years. They are the perfect symbol for COVID-19. Other things like news clippings of vaccine trials were also very common answers. 

      Another item that was also mentioned frequently was pieces of technology. Said Junior Liam O’Toole ‘23, “I think that we should put something like a USB drive or another piece of technology just to see how far technology has progressed.” The USB drive could contain current songs, episodes of popular tv shows, and maybe a couple of memes.

      What’s a time capsule without photos? Photography is one of the best ways to capture the present for posterity. But what would the photos be of? When I talked to Madison McCrainey ‘22 about this, she wanted the photographs to be of beloved Marist Events like Chanel Day, Homecoming, Sadie, and football games. These are great ideas and would offer insight for future students into what happened on a smaller scale this school year. Photos are a way to add a more personal touch to a time capsule that has covered massive topics like global pandemics. 

      Well, there you have it! It looks like the Marist 2021 time capsule will be filled with photographs, snapshots of pop culture, and the occasional tech relic. Hopefully, we can actually create this time capsule sometime this year and leave instructions to the future teachers and staff who might find it.