Smithsonian Will Exhibit 9/11 Artifacts
The Smithsonian Institution has gathered symbols and artifacts from the Sept. 11 attacks for a commemorative exhibition that will open to the public on the first anniversary of the attacks, museum officials said Wednesday.
“Remembering is as important a part of our survival as is taking the next steps to make sure it never happens again,” said Marc Pachter, the National Museum of American History’s acting director, where the exhibition will take place.
About 3,000 people were killed Sept. 11 when hijackers used three commercial planes as bombs to destroy New York’s World Trade Center and attack the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
The exhibition will be the first to include artifacts from all three crash sites, officials said at a news conference, and will include items like a piece of twisted metal from the World Trade Center and a charred, damaged bit of concrete from the Pentagon.
Charred uniforms, photographs and a teddy bear left at the Pennsylvania crash memorial site will also be included.
A bill signed into law by President Bush in January gave the Smithsonian up to $5 million to collect and preserve objects related to the attacks.
The staff consulted U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum officials on the exhibit.
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