The World Building > Laying the Cornerstone
The World
Copper Cornerstone Box
New York, The World, October, 1889
World Papers
Instead of placing items directly inside the cornerstone of the World Building, a copper box was made as a time capsule to hold a remarkable group of items. When the building was torn down in 1955, the box was recovered during the wrecking process, and the box and most of its contents were added to the World Papers at Columbia.
Gift of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
The World
Laying of the Corner Stone of the Pulitzer Building, Thursday, October 10, 1889
New York: The World, October, 1889
World Papers, Box 10
This copy of the printed program for the laying of the corner stone was also placed in the cornerstone box. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., age 4, handled the silver trowel for the actual ceremony.
Gift of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
The World
Laying of the Corner Stone of the Pulitzer Building, Thursday, October 10, 1889
New York: The World, October, 1889
World Papers, Box 10
Gift of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
The World
Copy of recording placed in Cornerstone Box
New York, The World, October 10, 1889
World Papers, Box 10
On October 10, 1889, three reporters for the World went to the offices of the Metropolitan Phonograph Company on Fifth Avenue and made use of a new technological wonder called the Graphophone, the first practical machine for recording, invented by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter. The new machine was an improvement on a similar one invented a few years earlier by Thomas Edison.
For just under three minutes, the men discussed the events of the year (as reporters they were thrilled by the number of disasters), read some poetry, talked about sports, and even made a prediction. After the recording session was completed, the wax cylinder engraved with the voices of these men was placed in the copper box shown above. The recording was transferred to tape some years ago by the research laboratory of the Dictaphone Corporation. It is among the earliest recordings of the human voice.
Joseph Pulitzer
Address read at Cornerstone Laying Ceremony
New York, The World, October, 1889
World Papers, Flat Box 1
This copy of the address read on behalf of Joseph Pulitzer, who was then in Wiesbaden, at the corner stone laying ceremony was included in the cornerstone box, along with copies similarly written on parchment of the addresses made by two of the other speakers, World editor Col. John A. Cockerill and Chauncey M. Depew, president of the New York Central Railroad.
Gift of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
The World
The World, Evening Edition, Second Anniversary Number
New York: The World, October 10, 1889
World Papers, Box 10
A copy of the Evening World of October 10, 1889, was included with the cornerstone materials, along with copies of the morning World, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the other New York City newspapers for that date.
Gift of Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.