Annie Deihm and the Century Safe: Part 3
Time works out its changes from age to age
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Release Date: February 24, 2026
Time works out its changes from age to age
At the close of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition on November 10, 1876, Annie Deihm’s Century Safe was moved to the Marvin Safe Company headquarters at 265 Broadway in New York City. It remained there until the week before Christmas of 1877 when workmen were seen “hoisting it into the [Capitol] building and placing it in position” in Statuary Hall. 1
By then, forty-year-old Annie was already well into what would be a nearly two-year tour of American towns and cities in an ambitious effort to collect signatures, photographs, state seals and other mementos to be added to those she’d gathered during the Exhibition.
To make her task easier, Annie carried with her an official letter of introduction from President Rutherford B. Hayes, who’d succeeded Ulysses S. Grant with a win in the 1876 election: 2
Executive Mansion, Washington, DC
We cheerfully recommend to the hospitality of all cities in the Union Mrs. Chas. F. Deihm and her Centennial Autograph and Photograph Albums (which is her own original idea) and trust that her reception in your City may be as cordial and general as it has been here. 3
R. B. Hayes
The presidential endorsement helped, but Annie wasn’t willing to leave anything to chance. She also mailed out packages containing pages from the autograph albums to be signed and returned by free express mail, and took out advertisements inviting “the Governors, Ex-Governors and State Officers; Army and Navy Officers; Doctors, Lawyers and Ministers, Presidents of Railways and Banks; Literary Men and Artists, and Leading Manufacturers” from every state and territory to record their names in her albums for posterity. 4
And in her free time, she edited and published a weekly family newspaper, and lobbied the U.S. Congress to accept ownership of her Century Safe on behalf of the American people.
For her efforts, the press called Annie “a plucky and persistent woman,” while also questioning why her preservation project was taking so long and suggesting its significance was already being forgotten. 5
Finally on Saturday, February 22, 1879 – what would have been George Washington’s 147th birthday – the Century Safe was ready to be closed, its contents to be hidden away for ninety-seven years. 6
Back in 1876, Annie had envisioned five unique albums would be placed in the safe, one each by President Ulysses S. Grant and Thomas W. Ferry, President pro tempore of the Senate, as well as by Centennial Exhibition leadership including Joseph R. Hawley (President), Alfred T. Goshorn (Director-General), and Orestes Cleveland (Organizer). Peter Cooper, the man who’d donated the safe itself, and poet William Cullen Bryant would each close one of the safe’s doors, and Benjamin B. Sherman of the National Exchange Bank of New York would turn the final lock. 7
By 1879, however, that vision had – by necessity – changed. Grant had been replaced by Hayes as America’s president, William Cullen Bryant had passed away, Peter Cooper was unavailable and, twenty-six months after the close of the Centennial Exhibition, most of the men involved in leading that monumental effort had moved on.
Still the ceremony was held.
Several hundred people assembled in Statuary Hall in the Capitol at noon Saturday to witness the formal ceremony of closing the Century Safe. During the morning the safe, which is located in the southwest corner of the Hall, was hidden from the public by screens, and Mrs. Diehm and others interested in the successful launching of the safe and its cargo down the stream of time busied themselves in the inclosure arranging the articles to be deposited.
At noon the screens were removed and the inner glass of the safe was locked by Senator Ferry. President Hayes, who was to be present, was represented by his private secretary, Mr. Rogers, who expressed the regret the President felt in being unable to be present on so important an occasion. 8
By some accounts, the ceremony was shorter than planned, anticlimactic and underwhelming. Dignitaries whose presence had been expected failed to make appearances, and others seemed reluctant to embrace a 3,500-pound safe which, having not yet been officially accepted by either the House or Senate, was viewed more as a burden than a gift.
Yet, other accounts clearly experienced the magic of the moment. The vision which had driven Annie for three long years to create something she would never see come to pass for people she would never know:
Strange thoughts filled our minds and stranger scenes our fancy painted as we stood in the presence of this vast throng eager to catch a glimpse of these souvenirs that shall be looked upon with wonder by other millions yet unborn.
There came before us a picture of one hundred states smiling between two oceans, with 250,000,000 of people, with commerce, borne over every ocean and navigating the air, with electricity a subtle agent then curbed, conquered, and obedient to human will, as the great motor, with man talking with fellow man across continents and over oceans, with vice suppressed, and rum dethroned, with woman’s voice and woman’s vote cast always against the wrong, the dawn of a day long looked for.
Time works out its changes from age to age. 9
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Exactly what was placed in Annie’s Century Safe is unclear. Newspapers of the day included various lists of items purportedly locked inside, some more complete than others, and several in direct contrast to one another and known facts, perhaps indicating that some reports were based on information taken from earlier press releases and others recorded by reporters on the scene.
Among the items reportedly placed in the Century Safe in 1879 were: 10
The large autograph album (with lines for descendant signatures), an album of photographs, and an album of autographs of members of the 44th Congress
an inkstand reportedly donated by Tiffany and Co., Lucy Webb Hayes, or James Gopsill, and two gold pens, again, with varying provenance – including Mrs. Hayes and Mr. Gopsill or perhaps by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, depending on the source
copies of Annie’s two publications, The United States Centennial Welcome and The Second Century
a copy of The Blue Book containing names of all government employees in 1876
a copy of an unnamed temperance book written by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson
a copy of a book on national banking laws
a card of express companies authorizing agents to receive and forward pages of autograph albums free
a copy of a sermon preached by Rev. S. Domer at the Foundry United Methodist Church on “the last Thanksgiving of the first century” 11
three stereoscopic views of the Centennial Chimes being played by Professor Widdows
photographs of Rutherford B. Hayes, Lucy Webb Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, Julia Dent Grant, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William A. Wheeler, Henry Wilson, Thomas W. Ferry, Samuel J. Randall, William K. Rogers, Tullio Verdi Michael C. Kerr, Elizabeth Thompson and Thomas A. Scott.
And at least one newspaper later reported that President Hayes, who was not even in attendance, also quietly slipped a photograph of Annie into the safe at the last second and “without the lady’s knowledge.” 12
The final click of the Century Safe’s combination lock had barely faded before both the safe and Annie were embroiled in controversy.
Mention has been made of the placing of an iron safe in the Capitol at Washington, which is not to be opened until 1976, and then only by the President of the United States. Credit was given Mrs. C. F. Deihm for this sentimental thoughtfulness of posterity, but it now appears that while the lady was looking after the generations to come, it was only as a means of feathering her own nest.
She charged every Senator and Representative whom she solicited to sign the album preserved in the safe a legal tender labeled ‘V’, and realized in this way the neat little sum of $1,840. Now she has a bill before Congress providing for the payment to her of $1,500 for the safe wherein these rich legacies are to be preserved unto the issue of the Republic.
Mrs. Deihm appears to be one of those enchanting philanthropists with a happy faculty of looking out for No. 1. 13
The story was picked up and repeated by newspapers across the country, quickly overshadowing the sealing ceremony itself and casting aspersions on the entire Century Safe preservation project.
Finally on February 26, Annie took action, penning a carefully worded denial and expressing her outrage.
“I never received a dollar from anyone for the privilege of signing the book,'“ she said, and statements saying she’d received $5 from each Senator and Representative who’d signed his name in the album were “both untrue and unjust…and wholly without foundation.”
It was true, Annie explained, that several Representatives were paid subscribers to her newspaper, but those fees had nothing to do with the Century Safe.
“My enterprise cost me $15,000,” she said, “but my services, the safe, and its contents I have given gratuitously, and I feel it a great injustice to me to see such charges reflecting such discredit while I am trying to make an honest living out of my paper.” 14
Whether or not Annie was sincere in her outrage is unknown. Just three years earlier, she’d advertised that people could purchase lines under their own signatures for descendants to fill in when the safe was opened in 1976, and it was well known and oft acknowledged that Peter Cooper had funded, at a minimum, the safe, and perhaps more.
Regardless, her quick response and ardent denial silenced all but the most convinced critics, and the controversy soon passed – but not without consequences, as reported in the Reading, PA Times the next day:
“It is obvious that there is an unpleasant impression about [Annie Deihm’s] work prevalent in Washington, for Senator Morrill has offered a resolution in the Senate, the object of which is to cause her safe to be removed from the Capitol.” 15
Copyright 2026 Lori Olson White
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The Century Safe Method teaches you Annie Deihm’s pioneering approach, refined with 150 years of hindsight and adapted for family-scale projects today and into the future
This isn’t a vague “make a time capsule” guide. This is a complete methodology for creating a Century Safe that:
Actually gets opened (most time capsules don’t)
Engages future recipients (not just passive viewing)
Survives decades of moves, transitions, and forgotten promises
Creates traditions that continue for generations
Your bridge to 2076 is waiting.
In 2076, someone will open what you’re creating.
They’ll read your letters. See your photos. Discover the “Five Things” about you that no historical record captured. Read your Good Ancestor statement and understand what you wanted to be remembered for.
They’ll sign the signature page beneath your name, answering the questions you posed across fifty years. They’ll feel connected to someone they never met but who thought about them anyway.
And maybe - just maybe - they’ll decide to build a Century Safe for 2126, continuing the chain you started.
That’s legacy. That’s bridge building. And it’s possible.
Get your copy of The Century Safe Method today.
The Story Catalog is not an archive in the usual sense. What you’ll find here is a living catalog of Lost & Found Stories – deeply researched historical narratives told in parts, discovered through newspapers, letters, court records, logs, and the stubborn human habit of leaving traces behind.
Have you read the incredible true story of Aimee Henry and Mary Martha Parker? Call Me a Bastard is my longest serialized story to-date, and the one that started it all here on the Lost & Found Story Box. Check out the story from the beginning.
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End Notes
1 “The Centennial Safe,” National Republican, Washington, DC, December 20, 1877, P. 1.
2 “Disputed Election of 1876,” Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums.
3 Legislative Branch Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1972, Hearings Ninety-Second Congress, P. 495.
4 “1776-1876-1976 International Exhibition,” The Jersey Journal, Jersey City, NJ, January 4, 1877, P. 2.
5 “Mrs. Deihm’s Centennial Safe,” The Philadelphia Times, Philadelphia, PA February 23, 1879, P. 4.
6 “The Centennial Safe” Evening Journal, Vineland, NJ, January 1, 1878, P. 3.
7 “A Centennial safe.” Connecticut Western News, Salisbury, CT, June 9, 1876, P. 1.
8 “The Century Safe,” National Republican, Washington, DC, February 24, 1879, P. 4.
9 “Washington Letter,” Weekly Interior Herald, Hutchinson, KS, March 6, 1879, P. 1.
10 “How the Day Was Celebrated,” The Boston Globe, Boston, MA, February 23, 1879, P. 1. & “The Century Safe,” National Republican, Washington, DC, February 24, 1879, P. 4.
11 “Centennial Safe to be Opened for Bicentennial,” Suffolk News Herald, Suffolk, VA, March 14, 1976, P. 5.
12 The sermon was actually preached in 1867, and likely in a Lutheran church. It is referenced in “Bibliotheca Lutherana: A Complete List of All the Lutheran Ministers in the United States,” by John G. Morris, Lutheran Board of Publication, Philadelphia, PA, 1876, P. 26.
13 The Tennessean, Nashville, TN, March 4, 1879, P. 2.
14 “To the Editor,” New York Tribune, New York, NY, February 26, 1879.
15 “Mrs. Diehm’s Century Safe,” Reading Times, Reading, PA, February 28, 1879, P.2.
A fascinating chapter, what really stands out is how Annie’s vision collided with the practical realities (and politics) of her time. The contrast between the idealistic “time capsule for the future” and the lukewarm, even skeptical reception at the ceremony feels especially telling. It also raises an interesting question: how much of legacy is shaped not just by intention, but by public perception in the moment?
Plucky and persistent does describe Annie Deihm. I didn't see the ending to this episode coming! Another cliffhanger.