January 7, 2015 |
Paul Revere's Treasures Revealed
Big news for history buffs in Boston today: the newfound time capsule buried 220 years ago by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams was opened last night, revealing colonial coins, a silver plaque likely engraved by Revere himself, and piles of paper ephemera. Conservators from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts carefully unpacked the small box, which was unearthed from a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House last month and then X-rayed to determine its contents.
So what's inside? Conservator Pam Hatchfield excavated the treasure with a porcupine
quill and a dental tool. The first layer contained five newspapers from the mid-nineteenth century--"in amazingly good condition," according to Hatchfield. In 1855, the original leather pouch interred by Revere and Adams was accidentally discovered and replaced by a sturdier brass box. At the time, contemporary newspapers were added. Underneath sat two dozen coins, including a rare 1652 pine tree shilling. Some of the silver pieces had newsprint stuck to them and some had been corroded by long-term water damage. The capsule also held a paper seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "calling" cards, and a title page from a seventeenth-century Massachusetts Colony Records.
The objects will receive conservation treatment and go on exhibit for a brief time before reburial.
Great pictures of the contents are online, as is this short video.
Image: Michael Comeau and Pam Hatchfield of Boston's MFA. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
So what's inside? Conservator Pam Hatchfield excavated the treasure with a porcupine
quill and a dental tool. The first layer contained five newspapers from the mid-nineteenth century--"in amazingly good condition," according to Hatchfield. In 1855, the original leather pouch interred by Revere and Adams was accidentally discovered and replaced by a sturdier brass box. At the time, contemporary newspapers were added. Underneath sat two dozen coins, including a rare 1652 pine tree shilling. Some of the silver pieces had newsprint stuck to them and some had been corroded by long-term water damage. The capsule also held a paper seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "calling" cards, and a title page from a seventeenth-century Massachusetts Colony Records. The objects will receive conservation treatment and go on exhibit for a brief time before reburial.
Great pictures of the contents are online, as is this short video.
Image: Michael Comeau and Pam Hatchfield of Boston's MFA. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
![Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–253) Homilia in Genesim, Homiliae in Exodum, in Latin, translation by Rufinus, decorated manuscript on parchment [Austria, Lambach Abbey? c. 1150–1175]. Estimate: $150,000-$200,000.](/sites/default/files/styles/category_card/public/media-images/2026-06/origen.jpeg?itok=0V_4_Lt2)
