For those of you who think a floppy disk is a 3D-printed “Save” icon, you have much to learn, young padawans. In a new traveling exhibition by the National Heritage Board, you’ll be taken back in time, to an era before smartphones reigned supreme.
The Frozen in Time: Time Capsules in Singapore exhibition, which will roam around libraries across the island from now till next November, gives visitors an insight to life through past decades, like when pagers were once considered the high-tech gizmos of the day. To showcase the history of time capsules in Singapore, 40 objects similar to those contained in actual time capsules will be on display.
In case you didn’t know, Singapore has created more than 50 time capsules since the 19th century — although some have been uncovered and spotlighted for the public, others remain buried in the ground.
Some highlights from the exhibition include Straits Settlements coins that you can view through a magnifying glass (these are similar to ones in a time capsule that was buried in 1937 and will only be unearthed in the year 3000).
Other old-school items include a 35mm Rollei camera and a HP-35 calculator from the ’70s, a pager, an analogue telephone, and a “Super Simon” game set that you can actually play.
One of the older artefacts would probably be the original 1929, 14th edition Encyclopaedia Britannica that you can flip through — this one’s similar to the one in the 1938 Westinghouse Time Capsule of Cupaloy in the US, although that’ll only be opened in the year 6939, long after we’re all gone.
But if you haven’t been to a public library in ages and you don’t plan on breaking that record, check out a 360-degree view of the exhibition online.
Frozen in Time: Time Capsules in Singapore will be at Toa Payoh Public Library from Nov 8-29, followed by Queenstown Public Library from Dec 1-30, and other libraries until Nov 2018. Free.
