The year is 2070, and due to the actions of humanity, the Earth is no longer inhabitable. A combination of rising ocean levels and soil erosion caused a depletion of Earth’s food and fresh drinking water. Fortunately, through a space probe followed by an astronaut expedition, NASA’s scientists discovered a wormhole in space that leads to another galaxy with a habitable Goldilocks planet.
As all of Middletown is evacuating their hometown [to the new galaxy], there was a sense of melancholy throughout the community as no one will remain to preserve it. The mayor, named Lisa Florsheim (the granddaughter of Benjamin Florsheim), felt this melancholic ethos that was prevalent throughout the town and wished to ameliorate it in some way. Because she lived in Middletown her whole life—she attended Wesleyan University, like her parents and her grandfather—she had a very close attachment to the town and wished to preserve and memorialize its identity in some way. While reading about Carl Sagan’s Voyager 1, she realized that she could memorialize the town’s identity by preserving certain items that capture the identity of the town (“Voyager,” n.d.). While watching the Parks and Recreation episode “Time Capsule” with her daughter, she realized that a time capsule filled with historic items from Middletown would be the best way to memorialize the town she loves so much (Schur, 2011). The items that were put in the capsule would transform into relics as, according to Alexandra Walsham, they are defined as “material manifestations of the act of remembrance. They sublimate, crystallize, and perpetuate memory in the guise of physical remains, linking the past and present in a concrete and palpable way” (Walsham 2010, 13). Although Florsheim had not read this, she was acting upon the same philosophy as the goal of placing these items in a capsule will preserve them eons after Middletown erodes into dust; thus, these items are the only crystallized links to Middletown.
Some of the historian’s most important items he included are historic photos of the town, the Middletown Seal, and historical newspapers. Some cultural elements were added from important artists who lived in Middletown Connecticut. One example is a CD of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, regarded decades later to still be his best musical. Accompanied with this is a mini-CD player with symbols that will help communicate how it works. The Hamilton CD is an interesting case as the members of the committee, as well as many residents of Middletown and Wesleyan, considered it to be a significant element of the town.
Another important factor of this memorial is that, due to the size of the box, only a few items and photos can fit in the capsule. Even though some items are preserved, most were not. Thus, the memory of the town will inevitably be vastly different from what the town actually was. It is interesting that the content focuses on the materiality of the town and mostly neglects the natural part. There is a certain sense of irony that peoples’ devotion to materiality over nature caused the Anthropocene moment they are acting in. This time capsule functions to provide both short term comfort to the grieving citizens of Middletown while ensuring the long-term preservation of Middletown is not confounded with a more global culture.
