Los Angeles Central Library opens 1925 time capsule during centennial celebration
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Summary
As part of the Los Angeles Central Library centennial, staff opened a 1925 cornerstone time capsule and displayed artifacts — including an 1881 capsule with a mourning cloth linked to President Garfield’s funeral — that highlight the city’s layered history.
The Los Angeles Central Library opened a cornerstone time capsule placed in 1925 as part of centennial festivities, revealing archival materials and unexpected artifacts from earlier institutions on the site.
Speakers at the event explained the extraction procedure and conservation concerns: the capsule sat behind a cornerstone and required careful work to remove it without damaging historic masonry. Among the items shown to attendees and staff were early staff records, a scrapbook of library buildings, multilingual newspapers and, unexpectedly, a second capsule dating to 1881 from a normal school that previously occupied the site. That older capsule included a black mourning cloth and dried moss tied to President James A. Garfield’s funeral, a speaker said, which underscores the collection’s serendipitous historical value.
Library staff encouraged Angelenos to visit and view the time-capsule materials as part of yearlong centennial programming at branches across the city. The library emphasized the time capsule’s role in preserving and honoring the diversity of the city’s past.
The centennial events, programming and time-capsule exhibit were announced alongside regular services and educational offerings the library provides, and the city invited the public to learn more at lapl.org/central100 and through LA City media channels.
