Between the years of 1937 and 1940, at the dawn of World War 2, men and women at Oglethorpe’s University in Georgia donated documents, records and other memorabilia to be stored in a vault. This crypt is now known as the Crypt of Civilization, and was designed to be opened in 8113 A.D!
The idea originated from the dean of the school who realized that there wasn't enough hard evidence from ancient civilizations. Like many others, he realized that civilization was at a turning point and on the brink of war. He then created this project to create a 20’ x 10’ vault, located under the university, to house the historical documents. For three years, he and his students collected records on microfilm and stored them in the vault.
The image above is from one of the two Westinghouse time capsules, interred during the World Fairs of 1938 and 1965 in Flushing Medows, NY. The Westinghouse time capsules were only designed to last a measly 5,000 years.
