The photographs shown here are scans of loose photographs, negatives and contact sheets found in the Jimmy Smith time capsule, which was recovered from room #217 of the Chelsea Hotel during a 1987 renovation. Only 36 of the 58
photographs found in the time capsule were salvageable.
Jimmy Smith resided in room #217 in the summer of 1968. The time capsule, a cardboard box, was stashed in the drop ceiling of a coat closet. The contents of the time capsule are dated 1965 to 1968.
Smith, a known thief, fell to his death in November 1968, when he slipped or was pushed from the window of a fifth-story loft he was trying to break into.
