A Cosmic Orange-colored iPhone 17 Pro Max has been sealed in a 250-year time capsule as part of America’s semi-quincentennial celebrations, with the device not expected to be seen again until the 23rd century.
America250, the congressionally appointed nonprofit organization leading the 250th anniversary celebrations, announced that “America’s Time Capsule” was officially sealed and buried at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on July 4, 2026, to be reopened in 2276.
The iPhone was included as part of America250’s “America Innovates” initiative as representing the cutting edge of American innovation and technology in 2026, with the device showcasing advances in wearable computing, imaging and connectivity that have transformed the way people work, communicate and create in the 21st century. The device contains “digital artifacts” in the Notes app, intended to give whoever opens the capsule in 2276 a small window into daily life in 2026.
The capsule itself was designed to give the iPhone and everything inside it the best possible chance of surviving intact. Developed with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and preservation experts from the Library of Congress, it uses a precision-milled, 900-pound stainless steel cylinder sealed with indium, a soft metal that deforms under compression to fill microscopic imperfections in the sealing groove. It was covered with an 1,100-pound stainless steel bell that creates a protective air pocket to keep the ship dry underground.
Beyond the iPhone, the capsule contains contributions from all 56 states and territories and all three branches of the federal government, including a feather from the Civil War-era bald eagle mascot “Old Abe” (Wisconsin), fabric from the 1903 Wright Brothers plane (Ohio), and an AI-generated response from Anthropic’s Claude submitted by California imagining the state in 250 years.
