MacMurray Alumni and others gathered Tuesday to dig up a time capsule buried on the college’s campus 30 years ago.
The capsule was buried in front of the chapel on West College, formerly called the Annie Merner Chapel. Ben Cox, a member of the MacMurray Foundation’s Communications and Scholarship Committee says the time capsule was placed in celebration of the college’s 150th anniversary in May of 1996.
Cox says they know about some of the contents but the rest will be a surprise. “We know of a few things via some comments from MacMurray family that there is copies of The Daily Other, copies of the MacMurray Newsletter, things from the sesquicentennial year in the box, but beyond that its a pure mystery.” The Daily Other was a long-running student newspaper. The publication paired investigative campus reporting with campus menus, activity schedules, and creative student columns
Cox says its exciting to see people who are still interested in the college’s history and preservation of that history. ” The response has been fantastic. Members of the media and community have absolutely bombarded our Facebook page, we are extremely grateful for that. We’re glad that people still want to engage with the college’s spirit.”
JoAnn Nelson, Jacksonville Museum board member who actively volunteers to oversee the preservation and management of the MacMurray archives will be curating the contents of the capsule. Cox is hoping the items will be available for viewing in time for the MacMurray alumni gathering next month.