Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is pleased to announce that several divisions of his office participated in the Missouri Bicentennial Time Capsule project. Created by the Missouri Bicentennial Commission, the capsule will hold items contributed by organizations, institutions, and businesses, as well as local and state government agencies, for a period of 25 years before it will be opened by the State Historical Society of Missouri.
Items submitted – representing Missouri’s past, present, and future – included an array of items. The Missouri State Archives division was asked to provide facsimile copies of rare documents from the past, including, but not limited to:
- An 1820 map of the Missouri territory
- The Report of the Permanent Seat of Government selecting land for the site of Jefferson City
- The 1865 Ordinance Abolishing Slavery in Missouri
- The 1913 law creating the Missouri State Flag
- Photos of Bagnell Dam (1931), the construction of the St. Louis Arch (1965), and flooded downtown Jefferson City (1993)
- The gubernatorial appointment of the Honorable Ann Covington to the Supreme Court of Missouri, the first woman to serve on the court
To represent the present, the submission included the August 2021 newsletter from the State Library – Beyond the Stacks; a braille copy of the introductory letter to the Missouri State Constitution, courtesy of Wolfner Library; and a facemask with a Bicentennial seal –representing the current pandemic in our world.
Items representing the future included a sealed letter from Secretary Ashcroft asking tomorrow’s Missourians to preserve the rights and freedoms for future generations. He concluded the letter with these words: “Make the most of today because today will soon be your past.”
