The corroded 10-pound (4.5-kg) brass box, removed from beneath the state house last month, was painstakingly dismantled and unpacked by custodians at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in a gallery hung with oil portraits of both men.
Among the items in the box were two dozen coins including a 1652 Pine Tree Shilling struck by colonists in defiance of England, a bronze medal portraying George Washington, a silver plate made by Revere, and colonial records and newspapers.
Galvin said he expected the items would be displayed at the museum for some time before being placed back beneath the state house cornerstone, possibly with additional items from this era.
The capsule was first placed under the cornerstone of the 18th-century state house building, a Boston landmark topped by a gilded copper dome made by Revere's company, on July 4, 1795 in recognition of America's 20th anniversary of independence.
Adams
was then governor of Massachusetts, and Revere a colonial icon and
silversmith best known for alerting Colonial fighters to the approach of
British Forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775.
The
unveiling marked the first time its contents have been seen publicly
since 1855, when it was also removed from the cornerstone, the items
inside cleaned, and other items like newspapers and coins added.
The
capsule is more than a century older than a 113-year-old one discovered
inside a lion atop Boston's Old State House last year. That capsule
included materials from the presidential campaigns of William McKinley
and Theodore Roosevelt.
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