2026 is a year for library-world anniversaries.
As you know, the American Library Association is currently in the midst of a year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary. Our friends to the west at Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) are also celebrating a milestone: the 100th anniversary of its historic flagship Central Library which was dedicated in July 1926. To mark the occasion, LAPL dug into its roots—literally—to uncover a relic from its past.
As part of its yearlong Central 100 celebration kickoff event on January 29, LAPL unveiled on a freshly unearthed time capsule that was placed in the Central Library’s cornerstone during its original construction.
Extracting the capsule took nearly a year of planning.
Todd Lerew, director of Special Projects at The Library Foundation, said in a video at the event that there were no original instructions for retrieving the capsule, only old photographs that hinted at its location within the building’s walls. The box was eventually found behind the wall of what is now a men’s restroom. Workers drilled access holes, used a borescope camera, and cut through terra-cotta and concrete to reach the custom-made copper box.
“The box itself is an artifact. It’s an amazing thing, and whatever it contains will be valuable institutional history, if not something more indicative of life in Los Angeles,” Lerew said in the video.
What did LAPL find in the 100-year-old box? Watch the unveiling ceremony below to find out!
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