By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
January 13, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A small tin box offered a glimpse into Northeast’s past.

Last Saturday, the Kansas City Museum opened a time capsule that was found in a cornerstone of the former Thacher Elementary School. On February 25, 2015, the Kansas City Public Schools School Board approved the demolition of the former Thacher Elementary School and later that spring, building was nothing more than rubble. This was the first time the box had been opened since it was buried around 1900.

With many Northeast stakeholders in attendance, Denise Morrison, Director of Collections and Curatorial Services at the Kansas City Museum, revealed the box’s contents. Roughly three dozen artifacts were uncovered, all paper, detailing class rosters and providing writing samples. There were two issues of newspapers, The Kansas City TimesandThe Kansas City Journal. The box was not opened prior to the unveiling so Morrison said she and museum staff were just as surprised by the contents as those were in attendance.

“I wasn’t sure what we’d find,” Morrison said. “

Considering the contents were sitting inside the small tin box for nearly a century, Morrison was surprised the conditions of the paper was still, relatively, good.

“Paper is more resilient than we think,” Morrison said, adding that the capsule’s biggest deterrent was the tin box and its rust. “I was hoping for photos but those would not have survived as well. It might have helped that the paper was folded together.”

This wasn’t the first time capsule KCPS has found, either. Shannon Jaxx, director of the repurposing effort for the Kansas City Public Schools, said a smaller time capsule was found during the demolition of J.S. Chick Elementary School. Those findings are being held by the Kansas City Public Library.

“It wasn’t as old [as Thacher’s] and there wasn’t as much in it,” Jax said.

With the roughly 70 people in attendance shooting photos on their cameras of mementos from a hundred years ago, Morrison said she was glad to do this for the community.

“It means a lot to us [at the museum] to have been able to do this because the community fought so hard to save Thacher,” Morrison said. “It was also gracious of the school district to let this go and let us preserve it.”

Some of the contents will be on display at the Kansas City Museum until Saturday, Jan. 16. After that, museum staff will document and preserve everything in their storage facilities.