A look inside the 220-year-old Boston time capsule, in pictures (10pics)

 Using her grandfather’s dental tool and a porcupine quill, Pam Hatchfield carefully and delicately removed an array of artefacts dating back to the American Revolution from a small brass box. Her task as head of objects conservation at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts was to retrieve items which were first place in a time capsule at the State House in 1795.

 The items were buried by two of the leading figures of the revolution, Paul Revere and Samuel Adams

Paul Revere is best known for his famous ride of April 1775 when he was instructed to hasten to Lexington to warn two leading rebels, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, that British troops were en-route to arrest them. Adams, who played a key part in the Boston Tea Party revolt against British taxation, served as Massachusetts governor from 1794-1797. Adams and Revere were joined in creating the original time capsule by a lesser known revolutionary figure, Colonel William Scollay, who served in the local Boston Militia.

Originally placed in a cowhide container in 1795, they were excavated in 1855 after being discovered in the foundations of the Boston State House.

Above, conservator Pam Hatchfield holds a copper medal depicting the first US President George Washington, which she removed from the time capsule

 Then amid much celebration they were sealed in a brass container and buried back in the cornerstone of the building, where they lay undisturbed until last month. They were retrieved, having been located by radar, after workmen were sent in to tackle damp in the building. Retrieving items out of a cowhide bag is one thing, extracting them from a brass box was another.

Above, newspapers removed from the time capsule.

 Conservator Pam Hatchfield holds an engraved silver plate she removed from the time capsule

 Perhaps the most fascinating item of all - a 1652 Pine Tree Shilling, which was struck by the colony during Cromwell’s Protectorate in England.

 Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (left) and conservator Pam Hatchfield look at artefacts removed from the capsule

Pamela Hatchfield holding the time capsule moments after she removed it from the cornerstone of the State House in Boston on December 11, 2014

Massachusetts officials work to remove a time capsule in the cornerstone of the State House in Boston in December 2014