School NewsJan 5, 2024

updated Mar 13, 2024

125-Year Time Capsule

Historic cache connects past, present, and future

No one knows what the next 125 years will bring, but when the Blue and Gold gather for the Miss Hall’s semiquincentennial (250th!) celebration in 2148, they are in for a treat.

While celebrating the 125th year of MHS and the completion of the $75 million Be Bold Campaign this fall, MHS students, faculty, alums, and friends were invited to submit meaningful artifacts to fill a formidable time capsule.

The capsule will be sealed this spring into the cornerstone of Linn Hall, with instructions — and maybe a map — left for our successors — and our successors’ successors.

“What’s inside?” you ask. Contributed items include:

  • A hand-thrown mug made by members of the Class of 2027
  • A reusable mug designed by students, featuring a community word cloud
  • Class of 2024 patch contributed by the seniors
  • A message from this year’s all-school leaders to student leaders of 2148
  • Tennis ball from the 2023 inauguration of the James K. Ervin Tennis Complex
  • A knitted hat from the 2017 Women’s March
  • Favorite photos of MHS friends and family through the decades
  • Blue & Gold hats and shirts
  • Patches awarded to Blue and Gold athletes in the 1950s through the ’70s
  • 50th Reunion and leadership charms
  • Lyrics from the Class of 1965 senior song, found in the pocket of a well-loved Miss Hall’s blazer
  • A 1961 vinyl Grace Notes record
  • Glass signet from a 1957 Miss Hall’s School ring
  • More than a century of news clippings and mementos spotlighting time and place
  • 1923 architectural plans for the Main Building
  • Patch from a Campus Safety Officer uniform
  • Badges, pennants, and memorabilia throughout the decades
  • Letter from Board President Nancy Gustafson Ault ’73 to future Board Presidents
  • Incredible excerpt from A Backward Glance, a booklet by Mary E. Salisbury and written around the time of the 1898 sale of Miss Salisbury’s School to Mira Hall.

“Where will the school of the future be, do you ask? Surely we may not look for it here. … I should imagine its location might be nearer Lenox. And the school building? You must remember that you will then be in and of the twentieth century. Instead of one school building there will be a number of buildings. The main building with accommodations for various departments, furnished with telephones and audiphones and many other kinds of ‘phones’ still in embryo, to be born ere long out of Edison’s brain, will communicate with the homes of all the students. Recitations of absentees will be conducted through these ingenious, all penetrating, everywhere pervading ‘phones.’ No matter where girls are, they will be reached by means of wires or without wires.”

Here's to the Next 125 Years!

Celebrating our 125th year and the completion of the historic Be Bold Campaign, MHS students, faculty, alums, and friends were invited to contribute meaningful artifacts to fill a formidable time capsule. Here's a glimpse at some of what's inside, as captured by Honey Fields ’24, Zaria Hutchion ’25, Naomi Wager ’24, and Vivian Yang ’25.