A Racist Message Buried for Thousands of Years in the Future
The Crypt of Civilization is arguably the largest time capsule in the world. Housed in a basement at a university north of Atlanta, this underground chamber with a massive stainless-steel door was packed with artifacts, then welded shut on May 25, 1940.
The crypt was designed to preserve a picture of life in the 1930s for humans thousands of years in the future. Inside are stacks of records and film reels alongside 640,000 pages of books shot onto microfilmed pages. There are appliances, clothing, preserved food, an original copy of the script of Gone With the Wind donated by its director, a bottle of Vaseline, and a “Negro doll.” There’s even a phonograph designed to teach English words if future civilizations have forgotten the language. No electricity? No problem. A tiny windmill can run a generator to produce current.
The crypt was made to be opened in 8113 , a date based on the difference between when the project began—1936—and what at the time was thought to be the first year of the Egyptian calendar. The crypt’s return would be as far removed from
