By Heidi Brett, marketing & PR director, J. Willard Marriott Library

On September 9, 2025, Alan Shino and Lorraine Crouse, both from the Japanese Church of Christ in downtown Salt Lake City, arrived at the Marriott Library’s Preservation Department with an unusual item – a cast bronze, key-stone shaped box that contained several items from 1924.  Yes, a time capsule had been placed behind the church cornerstone on November 2nd, 1924, the day their newly completed chapel was dedicated.

While the group held its breath, the library’s preservation team – almost magically – removed the bronze screws from the hand-cast bell-metal box that weighed more than 24 pounds. Ten items were found – three sheets of newspapers, a Japanese flag, an American flag, a Holy Bible, a New Testament with references and three other documents; they had been in the box for approximately 101 years.

I’ll never forget the moment,” explains Randy Silverman, head of Preservation at the Marriott Library. “As we removed each item from the bronze trapezoidal container, time stood still. The church members delighted in trying to decipher the messages their church founders sent through time. I know there were a few tears shed that day.”

Fast-forward to October 20, 2025 when several members of the Japanese Church of Christ gathered in the preservation lab – this time to see the newly restored treasures.

“It was hard to believe,” exclaims Lorraine Crouse, board member at the Japanese Church of Christ and retiree of the library’s Special Collections Department. “The newspapers which had been tightly folded and wrinkled had suddenly come alive again. It was a thrill to see these wonderful items, which had meant so much to those who contributed them.”

One of the highlights of the day surrounded the New Testament (in Japanese), which came to America in 1906 when Lois Hideko Niiya left her family and home country for America; she was 18 at that time. Lois eventually met Edward Daigoro Hashimoto; they married and had one son, Edward Ichiro “Eddie” Hashimoto. When the newly conserved New Testament was presented, Edward’s daughters Ann Hashimoto Pos and Joy Hashimoto Douglass were overcome with emotion, as they were holding the New Testament that their grandmother had brought from Japan. 

The preservation team had worked hard to make sure all of the items were in their best condition for the unveiling at the church on Saturday, November 1, 2025 – exactly 101 years to the day when the capsule was set in the cornerstone of the church. Read more about the celebration and the preservation work on the time capsule in this Deseret News story by Dennis Romboy.

Items In the Time Capsule

• A Holy Bible in English
• A New Testament in Japanese
• A bundle of three folded front pages of three newspapers printed in Salt Lake City – Utah Nippo (Nov 1, 1924 in Japanese); Rocky Mountain Times (Nov. 1, 1924 in Japanese); and Salt Lake Tribune (Nov. 2, 1924 in English).
• One folded sheet containing two die-cut, silver glitter trimmed edges recording the names of four Sunday school teachers.
• An envelope contained the Japanese Church of Christ founding documents, plus a typewritten, hand-corrected history of the Japanese Church of Christ.
• Two folded miniature flags; one a handmade Japanese flag and the other the American flag with 48 stars.

Treatment

• The three sheets of newspaper were humidified so they could be gently unfolded. Each page was washed, deacidified and dried under pressure between cotton blotters to flatten the fold lines. Holes were mended with toned Japanese paper and methyl cellulose.
• The miniature Japanese and American flags were humidified and flattened between cotton blotters to minimize the creases.
• The founding documents were humified, flattened and encapsulated in inert polyester sleeves.
• The edges of the two leather books covers were treated to consolidate leather deterioration.

Collections of Interest

• Utah Nippo newspaper 
• Mitsugi M. Kasai Japanese American Archive