Archivists can spend a lot of time thinking about what goes into a box. Whatever document, report, letter, memo, etc. placed inside immediately earns an institutional commitment to its long-term preservation. Who knew going into a box was such a privileged position?

At other times, archivists hear the perennial call to think outside the box, which is an ironic metaphor for a profession that cannot stop thinking about the inside of the box.

One recent visitor to the archives dryly noted that even our boxes come in boxes. And, as if to add insult to injury, for five years this archivist lived next door to a traveling box salesman. It seems we cannot escape the box.

And then there are those rare moments when we must think of the box, not as a storage device, but as part of our history.

Such is the case with this copper container that was once the time capsule located inside Jackson Hall. Sealed and placed in the cornerstone of the new anatomy building on September 5, 1911, this box contained local newspapers, University of Minnesota photos, reports, Masonic publications, Cass Gilbert plans for south of Washington Avenue as well as a letter written by Dr. Thomas Lee, then Director of Anatomy, which accompanied the items. Opened in January 2005 to much fanfare, this box and its contents continue to attract attention and commemoration.

The most recent box variation presenting itself in the archives is a drawing of a box that is stored safely inside an archival box. This is an architect’s design of the copper time capsule placed inside the walls of Basic Sciences, now Hasselmo Hall. Once opened, perhaps this copper box and its contents can join its architectural rendering in the archives for their long-term preservation. Time and time again, the commitment to the archival box seems to outlast the guarantee of brick and mortar.