‘Marking Time’ Together- Make your own Time Capsule!

Taking photos, writing letters, losing objects: just like the sources we study from the past, we all ‘Mark Time’ every day! But how do these become important sources for studying the past?

In this ‘Time Capsule’ activity, students will analyze the nature of historical sources- why and how they are made, who makes them, and how they last- by making one themselves!

Let us know how your class went making their time capsule here.

Step 1: Significance

Historic events are remembered because they were important or significant to someone.

Choose an important event in your life.

Like the First Fleet’s arrival in Australia, you could choose a big event that impacted many people. Or you could choose a small event, something that is important just to you.

Why did you choose this event?

William Bradley 1788, Botany Bay. Sirius & Convoy going in: Supply & Agents Division in the Bay. 21 Janry 1788.

William Bradley chose to paint the moment when the First Fleet entered Botany Bay, Sydney, which was an important event in his life.

Step 2: Recording

People ‘Mark Time’ in many ways. Sometimes this is on purpose, like when people take photos, or write books and letters. Sometimes people mark time by accident, by leaving objects behind.

Choose a way to record your event.

• Will you paint your event like Gordon Syron?
• Will you write a poem or letter?
• Maybe you will choose a small object from your event to put into your time capsule?

Why did you choose to record your event this way?

Gordon Syron, 1999, Invasion 1 - An Aboriginal Perspective.

Gordon Syron chose to paint his event, using bright colors to show his emotions.

Step 3: Capsule

Some historical sources survive for hundreds of years, while others get lost, destroyed or damaged.

With your class/family, choose what you will keep your records in to make your time capsule.

• Will you keep your objects in a box, or a tin?
• Will you choose a plastic bag, or keep your records in nothing at all?

Why do you think your time capsule will keep your records safe?

Convict Shirt, Hyde Park Barracks Sydney

At the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, some convicts kept their belongings safe by placing them underneath the wooden floorboards of the building. 200 years later, archaeologists opened the floorboards and found hundreds of objects, including this convict shirt, that had been placed there by their owners.

Step 4: Keeping

Some historical sources are kept in museums, some are saved by being buried underground. Others are passed on from person to person over many years and generations.

With your class/family, choose how you will keep your time capsule.

• Maybe you will give it to your school library to keep, maybe you will bury it at your school, or maybe your teacher will keep it in your classroom?

How long do you think your records will last in the place that you chose?

This cross was brought to Australia by immigrant Catherine Joyce, as a reminder of her homeland in Ireland. The cross was kept in her family for 160 years before it was donated to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum collection.

Step 5: Remembering

We learn many things from historical sources.

With your class, imagine someone were to find your time capsule 200 years from now.

What do you think that person would learn from your time capsule?