The United States have decided to celebrate their 250th anniversary by sealing a giant time capsule. Among the dozens of artifacts selected to represent the contemporary nation, one object stands out that almost anyone, today, would recognize at a glance: an iPhone 17 Pro Max.
The stainless steel container, weighing around 400 kg, was buried in Philadelphia as part of the United States’ quarter-millennium celebrations. Its reopening is scheduled for 2276, the year when the country will celebrate its 500th birthday.
The initiative, organized by the group America250, collects contributions from all 50 states, from five territories, and from numerous cultural and sports organizations, offering a broad and detailed snapshot of American society today.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will see 2276 thanks to this time capsule
The inclusion of an iPhone 17 Pro Max in the Cosmic Orange demonstrates how smartphones have become central in daily life. The initiative’s curators placed inside the Notes application some digital documents designed to illustrate the everyday life of 2026.
The main question concerns the ability of the hardware to withstand the passing centuries: modern lithium-ion batteries degrade within a few years. It therefore seems highly unlikely that the device could be powered on again without a deep restoration by whoever finds it.
However, the object retains its immense symbolic value, embodying the era of mobile connectivity just as typewriters or rotary phones represent past eras for us today.
Alongside the Apple device, the capsule houses a text generated by Anthropic’s Claude AI, presented by the state of California, that imagines the region’s appearance in two and a half centuries.
A collection of nature, sport, and memory
Beyond electronics, the selection includes historical artifacts and natural rarities. Among the most significant pieces are a fragment of fabric from the Wright brothers’ 1903 aircraft sent from Ohio, a feather from “Old Abe”, the famous bald eagle mascot during the American Civil War donated by Wisconsin, and a North Atlantic right whale bone, a species at risk of extinction, donated by Maine.
There is also a diamond from Arkansas, the recipe for a traditional New Mexico cookie, and a commemorative pin from the NBA championship won by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2025.
Curiously, not all proposals were accepted: engineers discarded an American football, calculating that materials would deteriorate too quickly underground.
Engineering to Defy the Centuries
Designing a container able to resist 250 years required incredible engineering work. After evaluating several shapes, the experts chose a stainless steel cylinder, minimizing joints from which humidity could infiltrate.
The structure is protected by an outer metal bell that creates an insulating air pocket, while a layer of indium provides an additional hermetic seal. The most delicate paper documents were placed in a separate sealed compartment to maximize preservation.
The Philadelphia installation is accompanied by a second capsule positioned in Washington, whose contents have been kept largely confidential.
For today’s citizens, the Apple smartphone represents the main news and the element of greatest curiosity. Yet, in the eyes of Americans in 2276, it will likely constitute a simple historical artifact, a precious artefact useful to illustrate how people communicated, worked, and documented their lives in a distant era.
