Across Purdue’s campus, several time capsules will one day give future Boilermakers a glimpse into university life during the 20th and 21st centuries. Some of the time capsules are buried near campus landmarks, while others are nestled within the cornerstones of key campus buildings or within the walls of new construction.
On September 11, 1970, memorabilia from Purdue’s 1969 centennial celebration was sealed in a rectangular copper box and buried at the base of the centennial marker, a limestone monument featuring the University seal that had been modernized in 1968. The centennial marker, dedicated in October of 1969 and originally located on Purdue Mall, was designed by Daniel Estes (MA’69) and constructed of limestone quarried from Purdue’s agricultural research farm near Bedford, Indiana. According to the April 1969 Purdue Alumnus, the $2,500 shaft was “donated by a group of Bedford businessmen, most of whom are IU graduates.”
The centennial time capsule contains a letter from President Frederick L. Hovde (HDR E’75) to the Purdue president of 2069, in which he praised the immense Boilermaker pride of graduates and expressed confidence that “Purdue as an institution will continue to be in the forefront of our nation’s intellectual progress. … If we who served Purdue University during its first century built well, perhaps the work of your institution will be the stronger and better for what we have done.”
University publications and materials; copies of various proclamations and news clippings recognizing the centennial; a centennial flag; the summer issue of the Purdue Alumnus; and a tape recording of President Hovde’s address at the January 1969 centennial kickoff luncheon were among the 35 items placed in the capsule.
In 1989, after being unearthed and stored for three years due to the construction of the Materials and Electrical Engineering Building, the capsule was ceremoniously reburied under the relocated marker on the Northwestern Avenue side of the new facility. It is scheduled to be unsealed by Purdue officials during the University’s bicentennial celebrations in 2069.
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