Overview
- Library staff opened the copper time capsule on Jan. 29 to launch the centennial, following a year of planning led by Library Foundation special projects director Todd Lerew.
- The team located the box using drilling and a borescope, then broke through a non-structural wall in the men’s restroom to retrieve a custom copper container soldered on all sides.
- Contents include a scrapbook of prior library homes, a typed roster of employees, architects’ design materials, department reports, the city charter, coins, and newspapers in Spanish, French and German.
- A second, smaller capsule from 1881—originally placed at the California State Normal School on the same site—held a Garfield funeral memento and an 1881 Los Angeles population count of 11,183.
- Selections from the cache are on display at Central Library during the centennial, with a special-edition library card available and a new 2026 time capsule planned to close the year.