--- title: Contents of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams' 1795 Time Capsule Revealed description: It's the oldest American time capsule canonical: https://time.com/3656158/boston-to-unveil-contents-of-paul-revere-and-samuel-adams-1795-time-capsule/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-06T19:08:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:15:44.193Z og:title: What's Inside Paul Revere and Samuel Adams' 1795 Time Capsule? og:description: It's the oldest American time capsule. og:url: https://time.com/3656158/boston-to-unveil-contents-of-paul-revere-and-samuel-adams-1795-time-capsule/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What's Inside Paul Revere and Samuel Adams' 1795 Time Capsule? twitter:description: It's the oldest American time capsule. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Boston to Unveil Contents of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams' 1795 Time Capsule by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jan 6, 2015 7:08 PM UTC by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jan 6, 2015 7:08 PM UTC On Tuesday at 6 p.m., Americans will get to peak inside the [country’s oldest time capsule](http://www.mfa.org/node/430606). American Revolutionaries Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and William Scollay buried the then-[cowhide covered](http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/01/06/1795-time-capsule-buried-by-sam-adams-paul-revere-to-be-opened/) capsule under Boston’s State House cornerstone in 1795, when Adams was governor of Massachusetts. > [](https://twitter.com/mfaboston/status/552521658792439809) Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, which will host the unveiling, [says](http://www.mfa.org/node/430606) that the capsule was then discovered in 1855, when its contents were cleaned, documented, and added onto. The AP [reports](http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/01/06/1795-time-capsule-buried-by-sam-adams-paul-revere-to-be-opened/) that the capsule was also transferred from a rawhide casing to a copper box and placed under the Statehouse again. The box was again unearthed in December due to a [water leak.](http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/11/us/boston-time-capsule-paul-revere-sam-adams/) Although the contents — which X-Rays indicate include coins, documents, newspapers, and a plate owned by Paul Revere — aren’t a mystery, their condition will be the true revelation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3656158/boston-to-unveil-contents-of-paul-revere-and-samuel-adams-1795-time-capsule/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3656158/boston-to-unveil-contents-of-paul-revere-and-samuel-adams-1795-time-capsule/"},"headline":"Boston to Unveil Contents of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams' 1795 Time Capsule","datePublished":"2015-01-06T19:08:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:44.193Z","description":"It's the oldest American time capsule","url":"https://time.com/3656158/boston-to-unveil-contents-of-paul-revere-and-samuel-adams-1795-time-capsule/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Boston","U.S."],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3656158/boston-to-unveil-contents-of-paul-revere-and-samuel-adams-1795-time-capsule/","name":"Boston to Unveil Contents of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams' 1795 Time Capsule"}}]}] ```