Informational Sheet 1: The Time Capsule

As part of the Boott Cotton Mills Complex redevelopment in 1990, James Normandin of
Normandin & Sons Steeplejacks removed the Boott Mills Weathervane from its tower for
restoration and regilding. Upon moving the weathervane, James uncovered a copper tube inside
the acorn finial with a sheet of paper hidden within the tube. The document was hardly legible,
as time and weather had blurred the blue ink.
Al Chapman, the Boott Mills welder and coppersmith, placed the tube and paper in the acorn in
1919. The paper, written by a draftsman named Walter B. French, highlighted names of people
involved in the current Mills renovations, as well as important local, national, and global news
from the year 1919. On one sheet titled Events of a present nature, French wrote about local
strikes (Police strike in Boston, Car Strike on Bay State St. R.R. Co., Firemans strike has
been on in cotton mills for seven weeks, no sign of settlement). He covered national events,
such as President Woodrow Wilsons country tour for support for the League of Nations and the
World War I Peace Treaty, as well as United States Army General John Joseph Black Jack
Pershings return from France.
Furthermore, French listed salaries--loom fixers received $29.87 per week--and consumer
prices--meat cost sixty to eighty cents per pound, and high-quality mens shoes sold for eight to
ten dollars a pair. Adjusting for inflation, meat would cost $8.25 to $11.00 per pound today.
Loom fixers would earn $410.83 per week, and well-made mens shoes would sell at $110.03 to
$137.54 a pair.
French recorded the population of Lowell in 1919 at 106,000. Over the years, Lowells
populations has fluctuated dramatically. When Normandin discovered the document in July
1990, 95,500 citizens occupied Lowell. In July 2014, Lowells population was recorded at
109,945.
When it came time to replant the acorn in August 1990, Kim Tosi of the Congress Group, which
renovated the Boott Mills, wrote a new document for the time capsule. Tosi decided to follow the
same pattern as French, listing people's roles within the Mills renovation as well as local and
global news. Tosi wrote descriptions of the Boott Mills office and research facility, the Boott

Cotton Mill Museum (Mill #6), the Tsongas Industrial History Center, and the Lowell Historic
Preservation Commission.
In her section aptly titled events of a present nature, she highlighted local events, such as the
175,000 visitors who came to Lowell during that years three-day Lowell Folk Festival in July.
She recorded national news on President Bush sending US troops to Saudi Arabia to secure
American Investments, the estimated $2,000.00 it would cost each individual taxpayer to bail
out the failed Savings and Loans, and a new theory that claimed a Dallas police officer took part
in President John F. Kennedys assassination. Tosi covered international news on Nelson
Mandela announcing the end of African National Congresss 30-year guerrilla war and Iraqs
invasion of Kuwait, which prompted the United Nations to vote in favor of Economic and
Military sanctions against Iraq.
Tosi also thought it important to mention the daily specials at Arthurs Restaurant (Paradise
Diner) in Lowell: ham and cabbage, hamburg loaf, veal cutlet, and chicken and tuna salad served
with homemade potato salad.
The weathervane will likely be regilded in another 70 years from 1990. If this is so, Tosis
information will be reread in 2060, and another document will be placed into the time capsule.
News such as the war in Iraq, the historic U.S. election of a Black president, and recent UMass
Lowell expansions might make the next document, but who knows what could happen in the
next 45 years? Our world, just like Frenchs, it seems, is ever-changing.