Sandwich has celebrated historic birthdays so often you’d think we’d be short on candles. For at least a century and a half, big civic parties have marked the births of the town, the county and the nation. But like an Olympic torch passed from runner to runner till it reaches the cauldron, each generation picks up the flame where the last one left off. We’re about to take on that collective challenge again as the town participates in the 250th birthday party of the United States in 2026. You...

The creators of Sandwich's Centennial Box didn't have an instruction manual in 1876 when they launched one of America's first time capsules on a 100-year voyage. Their wood-and-tin box looks as crude to us as the Mayflower or a Mercury spacecraft. But like those other pioneering voyagers, it delivered the goods. On July 4, 1976, the 200th birthday of the United States, town leaders opened the lid and fulfilled the 19th century community's wish to link generations. In this section of a photo...

When Russell A. Lovell Jr. first saw the contents of the newly opened Sandwich time capsule on July 4, 1976, he berated its chief packer, Charles C.P. Waterman. Then the Sandwich historian spent the rest of the year studying, displaying and writing about Waterman's century-old selections. The more Lovell looked into the Centennial Box, the more he saw. Though he still had complaints, Lovell's Dec. 30 wrap-up article in the Village Broadsider newspaper included this phrase: "Mr. Waterman, that...