31. Time Capsule Box and 1995 Founder’s Day

In 1995, the Dalton community assembled in the new Physical Education Center to celebrate Dalton’s 75th year and to discover what Dalton’s founders placed in the school’s cornerstone in 1929. Included in the copper box were Parkhurst’s book, Education on the Dalton Plan, newspapers, a graduation program, a yearbook, photographs and coins.

The oldest object in our collection, the time capsule, lay embedded in the cornerstone of 108 East 89th street from May 27, 1929 until its discovery in 1995.

What did the founders deem important enough to include in the copper box, not knowing when it would be opened?

First and foremost was a copy of the book The Dalton Plan. The contents include The London Times Educational Supplement from 1921 with a front-page article praising the Dalton Plan and a 1924 letter commending the efforts of Helen Parkhurst in Japan, as well as copies of The Herald Tribune and The World. A copy of The New York Times mentions the laying of the cornerstone as part of graduation. Lists of bond subscribers, administrative personnel, the Commencement brochure naming the graduates from 1924–1928, and names of students representing each grade at the ceremony were also securely stored in the box. By school year 1928–1929 the student population stood at 380, up from eighteen in school year 1918-1919.

Also included were a 1929 yearbook, flags, coins, photographs of assembled students, as well as several portraits of unidentified students, including one of a costumed girl with the inscription “Little Bo Peep looking for her sheep.”

As part of the seventy fifth anniversary celebration, the Dalton community assembled in the new Physical Education center on January 27, 1995, proclaimed “Founder’s Day,” to open the time capsule. As each item was revealed, cheers went up from those who previously guessed the contents. The celebration included songs from the musical Parky and concluded with birthday cake and a rousing rendition of “We Go Forth Unafraid.”
—Stephanie Fins, Curator of the Centennial Project, Anthropologist and Museum Program