Maryland’s full congressional delegation, including Southern Maryland’s own Rep. Steny Hoyer (MD-05), submitted a replica Fort McHenry flag and a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad centennial souvenir medal for inclusion in the Semiquincentennial Congressional Time Capsule, a container that will remain sealed on Capitol grounds until the nation’s 500th anniversary in 2276.
The time capsule was created under the bipartisan Semiquincentennial Congressional Time Capsule Act, which directed the Architect of the Capitol to build and bury a capsule containing a joint letter from congressional leadership alongside contributions from every state and territorial delegation. It was unveiled at a June 24 ceremony in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall before being sealed in the Capitol Visitor Center; when it’s reopened, it will be presented to the 244th Congress. It’s a distinct project from the separate national “America’s Time Capsule,” which America250 buried at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on July 4 and for which Maryland’s contribution was a challenge coin bearing Gov. Wes Moore’s name and a state map.
The flag Maryland chose is a 15-star, 15-stripe replica of the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The original was sewn at 844 E. Pratt St. in Baltimore — now the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House — by Mary Pickersgill, her family, and indentured and enslaved African American women, and is on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The replica included in the capsule was flown over the Flag House itself on July 4, 2026. The B&O Railroad medal, donated by the National Museum of Railroad History and Innovation in Baltimore, commemorates the 1927 centennial of the B&O Railroad, chartered in 1827 as the first railroad in the country to carry both passengers and freight for a toll; construction began the following year with a Baltimore groundbreaking attended by Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.
“It can be difficult to imagine America at 500,” Hoyer said. “What technologies will define the way we live and work? What will our nation celebrate and mourn from its history? How will our people build community and understand the bonds that keep us together? The America 250 Congressional Time Capsule will offer them a window into our nation and our moment in history.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen called the selections “a reflection on the work our nation has done over the past 250 years to live up to our founding ideals,” while Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said she hoped future Marylanders would “look back at the mark we are leaving now.”
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Glenn Ivey, Rep. Sarah Elfreth, Rep. April McClain Delaney, and Rep. Johnny Olszewski also joined in submitting the items, each pointing to different threads of Maryland history — from the Maryland 400’s stand against the British Army in 1776 to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Thurgood Marshall — that the delegation said the artifacts were meant to represent.
