Healthy history: Time capsule discovery at former General Hospital ‘excited’ Sault Museum curator

William Hollingshead plans to include contents with existing health-care exhibit

Article content William Hollingshead smiles as he peruses a phenomenally well-preserved April 29, 1963 edition of The Sault Daily Star. Its paper is neither torn nor tarnished. The type telling a story titled, Castro, Khrushchev Talk of More Aid, is as legible today as it would have been decades ago during the height of the Cold War.

Recommended Videos “I can’t believe it’s not more yellowed,” Hollingshead says as he turns pages. As Sault Ste. Marie Museum’s executive director and chief curator, Hollingshead has, no doubt, handled his share of vintage newspapers and other printed documents, many likely so old and battered their contents were a mystery.

In this case, the sanitary sewer pipe that served as an ad hoc time capsule protected its precious cargo very well. “So, it would have been exposed to humidity, possibly rusting,” Hollingshead told The Sault Star in an interview. “But when we saw it, it was in really fantastic condition.

The items that came out from the inside were in even better condition than I would have expected them to be. So, somebody made a good decision.” Discovered in the chapel of the former General Hospital by those tasked with demolishing the structure, the capsule – for which there appears to be no official record – also contained a pamphlet about the General and Plummer hospitals, minutes of the meeting at which construction was approved and St. Benedict Jubilee medals, all of which were in remarkably good shape considering their age and the fact the former hospital has been vacant for years.

“So, I really quickly did some research and was not able to identify any information as to the origin or the ceremony or anything about installing the time capsule,” Hollingshead said. The find was taken to city hall, Hollingshead was notified, and he, along with Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and others, were present when the time capsule was opened, a seamless process as it turned out. Contents are now entrusted to the downtown museum.

“I was really excited to hear about it and really grateful to be invited to the opening of it,” Hollingshead said. “And I was really curious and interested as to what might be in there. Again, like I said, we don’t have any record or information of it even being installed in the building itself.”

Now comes the nuts and bolts part. Fine details about each item are being entered into the museum’s database, allowing for research down the road as to the time capsule’s origin and original intent. “Making sure we have the tracking, where it came from, what it’s made of, what links it has to the community,” Hollingshead said.

The plan is to add the discovery to an existing health-related exhibit, first displayed during the COVID-19 pandemic, housed on the museum’s second-floor Skylight Gallery. The exhibit also features a video component. “It will be a perfect complement to that and just to provide a little bit more context, history, structure and environment of health care,” Hollingshead said.

This find may not mark the end of unearthing curiosities from the former General Hospital, which opened its doors decades ago and whose demolition got underway in mid-June following 15 years of sitting derelict. Hollingshead said that in speaking to demolition crews and city staff, he’s pumped about the possibility of another time capsule, this time from the original Queen Street East building. “Now that we found this one, I’m kind of like, ‘Hmm, I wonder,’” Hollingshead said.

“They’ll keep an eye out.” On X: @JeffreyOugler