On Friday, May 29, Kelli Peters’s first period AP U.S. History class looked less like a classroom, and more like a museum.
Yearbook artifacts, old magazines, and photo galleries lined the classroom, all pulled from a cabinet sealed by the AGHS class of 1976.
“I was gifted that cabinet. [The artifacts are] all from 1976, which was from the social studies department of ‘76,” said Peters. “Because it’s been 50 years, I decided we might as well open it and turn it into a project. I made [the museum] the post-AP exam project and didn’t expect a whole lot to come out of it, but [the students] have rolled with it and put together this whole museum.”
A prior teacher who taught at AGHS from 1973 to 1999, Joseph Bradbury, struck personal connection with the time capsule.
“It brings back a lot of memories for me: a lot of old teachers, a lot of things that happened, a lot of changes in this school,” Bradbury said. “The [AGHS campus] is a little different than what it was, but the students look about the same.”
Students in room 306 are still tracking down members of the class of 1976, a few of whom are expected to visit in the upcoming days.
Students who attended the museum found interest in the old artifacts.
“Honestly, it shows us what life was like before the internet,” said AGHS Student Charlie Libowsky (’27).
The museum inspired this year’s students to keep the tradition; they’ve begun assembling a 2026 capsule.
Students plan to preserve the 2026 time capsule for 50 years, giving the class of 2076 the same opportunity of opening a 50-year-old time capsule of AGHS.
