Artifacts Will Help Tell Personal Stories of Sept. 11

Standing in a storage room at the National Museum of American History, curator David Shayt unwraps a large gray box and carefully pulls back layers of tissue. Underneath is his prize--a cook’s apron from Nino’s Restaurant on Canal Street, one mile from the site of the World Trade Center. It has a stain around the waist and is covered with badges and insignias from groups that came to dig, serve meals and sometimes sing at ground zero.

“Overnight, Nino’s Restaurant was converted into a resting place for the police and firemen. A place to have a meal, to rest,” says Shayt. The badges from U.S. Customs, the Calgary Fire Department, the North Canton (Ohio) police and others have created a somber, but colorful artwork--like an AIDS quilt of its time.

The apron is one of the artifacts Shayt collected for an exhibit that will open on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Half a dozen people are at work on the exhibit, which will occupy 5,000 square feet on the Smithsonian Institution museum’s second floor, across from the display of first ladies’ gowns.

“September 11: Bearing Witness to History,” which will be open until Jan. 11, will center on photographs and personal stories, presenting at least 30 artifacts. By comparison, the current exhibition on the American presidency has 900 objects.

The horrific events of Sept. 11 were probably the most widely watched tragedy in history, presenting special challenges for curators more comfortable dealing with events much further in the past. The exhibit “is not about explaining Sept. 11, but it is about sharing stories,” says James A. Gardner, associate director for curatorial affairs.

The museum will not offer an explanation of the origins of terrorism, the way it might for labor history or the development of electronics. “There is a lot to be said on the subject of terrorism, but it is not an appropriate role for us. This exhibit is not a good place to deal with Islamic-U.S. tensions,” says Gardner. The job of bringing meaning to the event will come eventually, he says, but right now the interpretation will be left to the stories and the artifacts.

Members of the museum group working on the exhibit held their first brainstorming session Sept. 13. They discussed the role of a national museum at a time of national tragedy. (Congress passed legislation in December making the American History museum an official repository for artifacts from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.) They wondered if approaching survivors or family members would be too painful or exploitative.

They all agreed they had to start quickly, even while wrestling with their own feelings about the attacks. “Everybody was affected by it, everyone witnessed it,” says curator William Yeingst. “For us as historians, it is crucial to separate the emotions and get some perspective.”

Yet Peter Liebhold, another curator, worried that it was too soon to start collecting. “There are issues of taste and respect. The last thing we wanted to do is approach someone too soon,” says Liebhold.

Timing Considered Crucial to Collecting

What convinced them to begin immediately was the likelihood that many desirable objects and stories might quickly vanish, and the realization that this exhibit would not be the last word on those tragic events.

“This is not the final exhibition the Smithsonian will do on 9/11,” says Marilyn Zoidis, chief curator and designer of the exhibition. “And because we don’t know the full story, it is not a historic account. It will be ‘bearing witness’ because we all learned of a way to connect to the story.”

As the collecting progressed, the designers interviewed museum visitors to learn what they expected in a Sept. 11 exhibit. The answers included “flags, pieces of buildings, airplane parts, the iconic aftermath,” says curator Kathleen Kendrick.

Because of the planned exhibit’s emotional content, the designers have given special attention to pacing and privacy.

“We know the material will affect people in different ways, so we are going to have lots of seats. There will be places to reflect and compose yourself. If they want to leave, there will be a way,” says Zoidis. A place for visitors to leave their own memories also will be included.

Gardner says they even have discussed the floors. “Should it be carpeted? Maybe that is not comforting. On the other hand, mourning is a quiet experience; you want it hushed,” he says. “Usually we make these decisions on the basis of aesthetics.”

While the approach was being decided, the curators did their detective work.

Years ago, Joseph Lombardo, an executive with the risk-management firm Aon, gave the Smithsonian a 1940s Wurlitzer. He survived the attack on the World Trade Center and later talked with Shayt, who had been his contact for the earlier gift. “As we talked, he told me Lisa Lefter, one of the employees, had just had her briefcase returned,” says Shayt. Lefter had left it on her desk on the 103rd floor of the south tower. It was found in the street a day and a half later, with her resume tucked inside.

“This was a way for us to begin to tell the story of the office worker,” he says.

On one trip to Fresh Kills, the Staten Island landfill that is one of the destinations for World Trade Center debris, Shayt spotted a firetruck. It was intact but badly burned. He returned to the site with Liebhold, and the two got on top of the truck with a hacksaw and dislodged the door. “We wanted something emblematic of the fire department,” says Shayt.

As the word of the Smithsonian effort spread, people called to offer items. One call came from the wife of an ironworker, Jim Connor, who arrived on the first day to help with the rescue effort. Eventually the museum received his shoes, the bucket he was carrying, tool belt, wrenches and respirator.

Through a contact at American Window Cleaner magazine, the team found Jan Demczur, a window washer who used his squeegee handle to open a hole in a wall inside the north tower of the World Trade Center, allowing himself and five other men to escape a smoke-filled elevator.

Other artifacts include five parts from the two Boeing 767s that crashed into the trade Center. One is a part of a wing and the others part of the fuselage. They were found on the street by the FBI and, once eliminated as evidence, given to the museum.

“We wanted them as a way to acknowledge the lives lost on the plane,” says Shayt.