The New York Historical Society, a museum and library in Manhattan, just travelled back in time.

The Historical Society opened a 100-year-old time capsule Wednesday at the museum. The society claims it's the oldest sealed one in the world. The large, ornate bronze box was sealed in 1914 by members of the Lower Wall Street Business Men's Association and the former mayor of the city, Seth Low.

Coupled with the opening, teenage historians who intern at the museum presented a new time capsule.

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The century-old capsule had actually gone forgotten for decades. Originally its compilers had intended it to be opened in 1974, to commemorate the tricentennial of the New Netherland Company Charter, but museum members simply did not know about its existence.

It wasn't until the late 1990s that Margaret Hofer, currently the museum's curator of decorative arts, discovered the golden chest in an art storage warehouse in Chelsea. She immediately went to the museum's library and discovered an inventory of all the objects hidden inside, she told Mashable.

The 100-year-old time capsule sits in a room at the New York Historical Society. Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

Spectators packed the second-floor room of the unveiling, which kicked off with a speech from Nick Yablon, an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Iowa and also a fellow in residence at the Historical Society last year.

He gave a brief history of the time capsule as a tradition, calling it a fairly recent development that set off a "craze for sending things across time." Americans in particular were infatuated with the time capsule concept, because they felt they didn't have enough historic relics, while a growing immigrant population was sentimental about posterity and patriotism.

"As historians, we have to be careful about how we read these highly edited snapshots from the past," Yablon warned, though he cites time capsules as more "open and collaborative than traditional forms of memorialization."

Nick Yablon speaks at the time capsule unveiling. Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

Then two men in purple gloves set about unscrewing the capsule's lid, which caused a bevy of onlookers to spring up from their seats and crowd around the table.

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

As a bare-handed Hofer pulled objects out of the box, Yablon gripped a mic and read each item aloud. The men of Lower Wall Street took care to bury mostly books, documents and catalogs.

"Disappointment is the most common response to time capsule openings," Yablon had joked earlier.

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

The paper relics included:

An arbitration record of the New York Chamber of Commerce from 1772-1779.

A directory of the New York Stock Exchange from 1914.

Yearbook and annual report of the Sons of the Revolution in New York.

A 1914 almanac and encyclopedia called The World.

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable Book by member Abram Wakeman, titled History and Reminiscences of Lower Wall Street and Vicinity.

A history of the bank of New York from 1784-1884.

Annual reports of different city groups, such as the Saint Andrew Society, the Holland Society and Daughters of the Cincinnati.

The capsule also housed various copies of different newspapers, such as the New York Times, New York Herald and New York Tribune.

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

"Abram Wakeman believed that newspapers give us the true history," Yablon explained of the multiple papers. Wakeman seemed to be in control of the capsule's curation, he said.

One of the more palpably exciting objects was a photograph of Ellen Jay, a direct descendant of John Jay. Yablon said it was his favorite item of the bunch, a brief respite from the barrage of browning documents.

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

Over at the teen historian table, there were hardly any paper documents to be found. They had displayed dozens of artifacts on a colorful table:

A Bank of America credit card, dollar bills and 2014 pennies

Apple headphones

An Amazon Kindle

An Obama pin

A gay pride tank top emblazoned with the words: "Some dudes marry dudes. Get over it."

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable A Metro card

A CD mixtape

A Starbucks cup

Hofer believes physical artifacts were key for the teens' capsule. "Objects can speak in ways that literal interpretations of history cannot," she said.

As far as the teen historians are concerned, the goals between the current capsule and the 2014 capsule are worlds apart.

"I think they were more trying to represent the business side of New York," Charlie Barton, 16, one of the teen historians, tells Mashable. "We really were trying to represent not just culture, but also the people of New York."

Teen historians Isaac Tronsoco, Charlie Barton, Margaret Bozan, Joy Joseph and William DeMaria stand by their chosen time capsule items. Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

"We were given the task of making 2014 feel like a day," added William DeMaria, 16. Each of the teens submitted some artifacts, which was then analyzed during a lengthy selection process. Some teens, like 17-year-old Julia Gatenio, even got to slip two items in the capsule.

"One was a planned service change poster from the MTA, and the other was one of those 'We’re happy to serve you' coffee cups," she tells Mashable. "I feel like they’re iconic in New York, and I’ve sort of been seeing less of them."

William DeMaria's personal favorite was a reflection of our hypochondriac times: a bottle of Purell. It's a representation of how we're "germaphobes ... and constantly want to sanitize our hands," he said.

A favorite among all the teens seemed to be a hard-copy cover of Humans of New York, a photography book based on the popular blog of the same name.

"One hundred years from now, people are going to see how New Yorkers dressed and spoke, and what New York as a whole looked like," Barton said.

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

"That book alone could have pretty much achieved our goal of representing the culture of New York," declared 17-year-old Isaac Troncoso.

Guess we'll have to wait another 100 years to find out.