Princess Diana's 1991 Time Capsule Unearthed at Great Ormond Street Hospital: A nostalgic glimpse into 1990s Britain, including a Kylie Minogue CD and a Casio pocket TV, is revealed decades early due to hospital renovations. The contents, chosen by Blue Peter viewers, offer a fascinating look at life in the early 1990s
The Great Ormond Street Hospital in London announced Wednesday that a wooden box of then-popular items had been securely retrieved from its walls, decades after Diana planted it there in 1991 to commemorate the start of construction on the renowned children’s clinic.
While the box was meant to be opened only centuries later, the hospital said development of a new cancer center first required “outdated facilities” to be demolished. Diana’s capsule was thus retrieved earlier this year, while its contents have only just now been revealed.
The previously mysterious assortment included a CD copy of Kylie Minogue’s 1990 album “Rhythm of Love,” a picture of Diana, British coins, a snowflake hologram, local tree seeds, a solar-powered calculator and the height of 1991 technology — a Casio pocket TV.
It also held a copy of The Times newspaper featuring headlines on the Gulf War.
While the famously charitable princess was president of the hospital at the time, the items were reportedly chosen as part of a competition on the U.K. children’s show “Blue Peter,” after its viewers were asked to select eight items that best represented life in the 1990s.
The hospital’s executive director, Jason Dawson, said unearthing the relics was “almost like connecting with memories of things that have been planted by a generation gone by.” Janet Holmes, a senior health play specialist on staff there in 1991, felt similarly transported.
“It brought back so many memories seeing the pocket TV in there — I had bought one for my husband back in the day, for when he had a break whilst driving his coach around the country,” she recalled. “They were very expensive then!”
Diana was beloved around the world for her kindness and dedicated humanitarian efforts.
She notably shook hands with HIV patients in 1991 to dispel the then-rampant stigma that HIV/AIDS could be passed on through touch, and later raised awareness about banning landmines by walking through an active minefield in Angola in 1997.
Princess Diana's Legacy: Unveiling a 1991 Time Capsule at Great Ormond Street Hospital. As president of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) from 1989, Diana championed the children's hospital, famously raising an unprecedented £54 million (equivalent to $72 million USD) for its Variety Club Building. This remarkable fundraising effort, a record-breaking UK charity appeal at the time, solidified her enduring connection with GOSH
The late Princess of Wales died in 1997 in a high-speed car crash in Paris. She was 36.
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