As part of The United States of America’s 250th anniversary, all 50 states contributed items to a time capsule that was buried at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia over the holiday weekend.
Many of the contributions included commemorative coins and letters from state officials. But Maine's submissions were among the most unique.
They represent the state’s literary culture, indigenous traditions and include a symbol of its efforts to preserve an endangered marine mammal.
At Saturday's ceremony, the nearly 1,000-pound, stainless-steel cylinder was lowered into the ground by a crane. The capsule is designed to trap air and push out any water — ensuring it will last another 250 years.
In her opening remarks, America250 chief executive Jennifer Condan said the collection will help future Americans understand what the country was like in the 21st century.
“Most of us spend our lives looking back to honor those who came before us or looking ahead to tomorrow’s challenges. But today asks something different of us. It asks us to imagine Americans we will never meet,” she said.
The national collection includes hundreds of items ranging from letters to historical or cultural artifacts.
Bernard Fishman, director of the Maine State Museum, said he's helped contribute items for time capsules before, but he wanted the submission for America250 to be memorable.
“Usually time capsules are child's toys, you know, you have a piece of a rock or a letter from your congressman or something like that," Fishman said. "I think it's important for those people to open it to ask questions."
Fishman proposed including the chevron bone of a North Atlantic right whale — a critically endangered species that spends much of its migration in the Gulf of Maine. According to NOAA Fisheries, there are less than 400 individuals and around 70 breeding females.
"It's my way, it's our way of asking the future, 'OK, guys, did you save the right whales?'” he said.
More of the whale’s massive skeleton hangs from the ceiling at the Maine State Museum as part of an incoming exhibit about the state's coastal heritage.
According to the museum's science curator Paula Work, mounting the skeletons required custom steel supports and bone processing.
"It took multiple, multiple, multiple hours of work," she said. "It took some really talented people that both see the animal as a living organism, and then try to pose it, so that you can see that relationship with the natural world."
The Maine State Museum reopens after months of renovations in October. Fishman said he hopes the exhibit will inspire additional conservation efforts.
“We are responsible," he said. "We can make an enormous difference if we choose to, and education is the key to getting us to recognize that we need to make sure we have the will to do that.”
Like other states, Maine included some postcards and a letter from the governor. But it also submitted an item from the first people that settled the region: A woven bookmark, an example of Wabanaki ash and sweetgrass basket weaving.
And there's a poem, “This Home We Carry,” by former Maine poet laureate Julia Bouwsma.
It was written and recited for Gov. Janet Mills' second inauguration in January 2023, but Bouwsma says at the time she was thinking about future generations of Mainers.
"Thinking about the future and the uncertainty of that was actually really helpful to me. I didn't have an audience right in front of me. I would say, 'My audience is actually these people in 100 years.' In a way, that was easier. It took some of the pressure off."
The poem reflects on the meaning of home not simply as a place, but as something carried through memory, hard work and community.
Bousma says she expects much of Maine to change in the next 250 years, but the traits that define its people will remain the same.
“I do think we [Mainers] try hard ... that doesn't mean we miss the mark sometimes, but ... I want them to know that we're hard working, and I want them to know just how profoundly beautiful this state was, and how much that mattered,” she said.
The time capsule is scheduled to be unearthed and opened on July 4, 2276.
See other state's contributions on the America250 website.
