Boston Globe: Coins, newspapers found as time capsule is opened

Time capsule originally placed by Governor Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and Colonel William Scollay.

you know, after 1776, the wheels of technology seemed to ramp up, eventually small rail lines, Tom Thumb, etc started and grew from there.

I wonder if there is a way to 3d scan the newspapers to avoid unfolding them to get its data, but I tend to think you can't avoid opening them, scan them and refold them, but obvious age and crumbling is at work here.

Some conservationists who have experience with paper objects would know the best practices to handle the items. Whether or not they can be 3D scanned, I am not certain. I imagine that they would need to be unfolded to get the best image qualit as a scanner would pick up images of the ink on both sides of the paper.

I should note that lighthouse preservationists made an interesting discovery in Maine a few years back. In 1850, the United States Lighthouse Board erected a pile light on Minot's Ledge outside of Boston Harbor. It was the first structure of it's type constructed in the United States and was destroyed in a gale in April of 1851. It was the worst engineering disaster to ever befall the Lighthouse board or the successor United States Lighthouse Service, killing two keepers. The newspapers reported that before the structure failed, they could hear the keepers pounding on the fog bell. One can still hear the fog bell to this day, except it's now in Bryant Pond, Maine. After the wreckage of the old lighthouse was removed, it was sold as scrap and the bell was purchased by a newly formed Baptist Church in Bryant Pond. Previously, no historians were aware of that but research concluded that the bell in the steeple of said church is undoubtedly the Minot's Ledge fog bell. Hearing the bell ring, one can imagine what it must have sounded like on that stormy night in 1851.

newspapers of that period were printed on rag-based paper, and do not normally have the acidic level of later wood-pulp papers. They may be in fine condition. I have dealt with 1850s newspapers, and they were all remarkably preserved.