Vault to the Future: Burlingame seals 50-year time capsule

“This is an exercise in delayed gratification. There will be people in the room who are here when it's open, and there will be many of us who will not,” Mayor Michael Brownrigg said during the ceremonial sealing event. “It is a gift to our successors.” 

The items included the now-defunct penny, yearbooks from local high schools, a copy of the San Mateo Daily Journal detailing the El Camino Real restoration and tree removal project, and a pickleball. Library Board Trustee Jill Goldsmith, who served on the time capsule committee, said the city was particularly touched by submissions from young people. 

“We were especially gratified by all the young people who submitted things,” she said. “I think there's one little girl here who submitted her library card, because will there be library cards in the future?” 

The time capsule sealing comes after the city opened a 25-year-old time capsule in 2025 that held information on the Y2K problem, campaign buttons from the 2000 presidential election, Pokémon trading cards and an old TV remote. 

The committee for the time capsule largely accepted everything that was submitted to them, Burlingame Historical Society President Jennifer Pfaff said. Pfaff was instrumental in securing relevant pop culture items for the capsule, including the iPhone and the labubu, which is a popular doll. 

“We were able to accommodate everybody who submitted something, pretty much with the exception of one that was in the ’80s,” she said. 

The exercise of preserving the capsule allows groups of people from the present and future to communicate with one another in a rare way, Brownrigg said. 

“We are a culture that very much lives in the present. Forget history — don't think about the future, what's going on right now for me this minute?” he said.

“I think a time capsule helps all of us reflect on, there's a much longer span, both behind us and in front of us, and this is our little way of reaching out to the people in the future.” 

Brownrigg did joke, however, that the speechifying for such an event might not be necessary. 

“When you're at a time capsule event. It's sort of all summed up in the title. It's a time capsule. It's going to get buried or something, and sometime in the future, they'll open it up. What more do you need to say?” he said.