Contents of 1915 MSUM time capsule help ‘fill in a few gaps’
By Amy Dalrymple, INFORUM
A 95-year-old time capsule opened Tuesday provides a link to a part of Minnesota State University Moorhead’s past that was destroyed in a 1930 fire.
University archivist Terry Shoptaugh said there was no record of the time capsule in Weld Hall, likely because President Frank Weld’s papers were destroyed in the fire of Old Main.
Shoptaugh opened it Tuesday in front of about 200 people and found well-preserved photographs, course catalogs, a diploma and other documents from 1915 and earlier.
“The fire destroyed so much, and I think we have some things here that they may be the only copies you’ll ever see,” he said. “They fill in a few gaps that we lost because of that fire, and that’s very exciting.”
Construction workers found the copper box Friday in the cornerstone of Weld Hall while working on adjacent Lommen Hall.
Weld Hall, completed in 1916, is MSUM’s oldest building.
The items inside the capsule include:
– A blank diploma from 1915, signed by Weld, the Minnesota secretary of state and others.
– Course bulletins from several years, which include class descriptions and photos of campus and the interior of dorm rooms.
– Copies of the Moorhead Weekly News, including some headlines about World War I.
– Programs from recitals and the Shakespeare play “As You Like It.”
– Photos of Weld and other administrators.
– A small booklet of photos of Moorhead.
MSUM officials plan to rebury the time capsule after inserting some materials from today. They will make copies of the historical items and are figuring out a way to make it available to the public.
Barbara Glasrud, wife of Clarence “Soc” Glasrud, who was chairman of MSUM’s English department for 25 years, attended the event, which was held in the auditorium named after her husband. Soc Glasrud, who died in 2008, wrote two volumes on MSUM’s history, and would have been thrilled by the discovery, Barbara said. “It was really very exciting finds,” she said.
John Sherman, an English professor emeritus who worked in Weld Hall, attended the event out of curiosity.
“They tell you what people at that time thought people in the future would want to know,” he said.
MSUM has at least three other time capsules on campus. MacLean Hall has a time capsule in its cornerstone from 1931 that’s never been opened, but there is a record of what’s inside, said MSUM spokesman Doug Hamilton. MSUM placed another time capsule in a wall of MacLean Hall in 2008 during a renovation.
In addition, there’s a time capsule buried somewhere on campus from the centennial celebration in the late 1980s, Shoptaugh said.