Sunday is usually thought of as a day of rest, a tradition that stems from earlier times when almost everyone woke up, attended church, sat down for a family meal and relaxed for the remainder of the day.
But Jan. 15, 1939, wasn’t a restful Sunday for Indiana Memorial Union hotel page Emerson Keller Elkins.
Elkins had to be at work early in the morning. Probably a little disgruntled and maybe a little bit bored, he began his shift by writing a letter to the future IMU director, though he had no idea who it would be.
After writing the letter he placed it, along with some other items from the hotel, into a patch of the wall in the men’s lounge where he thought the plastering didn’t “look too solid.” And there it laid untouched and unknown for almost 70 years.
As workers began demolishing a wall near the former IMU Outdoor Adventures Office in June 2006, they came across something very unexpected — Elkins’ time capsule.
“A guy was knocking down the glazed red tile, and he saw some papers in there and started to pull them out,” said an IMU facilities service worker. “He said, ‘Hey, look at this!’ He started reading the letter, and we looked at the other papers. It was wild.”
After uncovering the letter, the workers brought it to former IMU Director Loren Rullman’s office. Later, other items, including a 1930s glass Coca-Cola bottle, packaging from a Lucky Strike cigarettes container, a lock and key, a coat tag and various hotel paraphernalia, were found in the wall.
Former IU student Emma Cullen, then-public relations director of the Union Board, was chosen to submit a new time capsule into the building.
Enclosed was a letter she wrote, an issue of the Indiana Daily Student and brochures of the Union inside the crevice where Elkins’ time capsule rested for more than half a century.
“This is one of the most exciting things that I’ve done while I’ve been here,” Cullen said.
The Union Board decided Cullen would be the best person to write the letter because she worked as a page at the IMU hotel this summer, and Elkins had been a page when he wrote his letter, former IMU Director Loren Rullman said.
“One of the things that every student wants is to have a part of IU with them and to leave something of them here,” Cullen said. “This is my chance to do that, and it’s really exciting.”
