the faux bohemian

Posts tagged work

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“There, displayed for the first time, are sacred relics of 9/11: the crumpled piece of the fuselage where the American flag had been painted on the Boeing 757 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field, a flight-attendant call button from the plane, a window shade, a landing gear strut, and a log book with the pages intact. The exhibit is simple and raw, without glass or showcases. Some dried mud caked on an airplane seatbelt was flaking off onto a tablecloth. Nearby is the door from a fire truck crushed at Ground Zero and the beeper of a man who died in the South Tower. There’s a Pentagon clock frozen at about the time American Airlines Flight 77 struck the complex and the phone on which Ted Olson received the last call from his wife on the doomed plane. Most poignant, perhaps, is the postcard from another passenger, written to her sister the day before the crash to give the address of a new home in which she would never live.” - Dana Milbank, “Politics Without Purpose” We’re getting good press so far! (fingers crossed) I hope that DC folks will be able to come out and see the exhibit. It’s really a pretty powerful presentation.

“There, displayed for the first time, are sacred relics of 9/11: the crumpled piece of the fuselage where the American flag had been painted on the Boeing 757 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field, a flight-attendant call button from the plane, a window shade, a landing gear strut, and a log book with the pages intact. The exhibit is simple and raw, without glass or showcases. Some dried mud caked on an airplane seatbelt was flaking off onto a tablecloth.

Nearby is the door from a fire truck crushed at Ground Zero and the beeper of a man who died in the South Tower. There’s a Pentagon clock frozen at about the time American Airlines Flight 77 struck the complex and the phone on which Ted Olson received the last call from his wife on the doomed plane. Most poignant, perhaps, is the postcard from another passenger, written to her sister the day before the crash to give the address of a new home in which she would never live.”

- Dana Milbank, “Politics Without Purpose”

We’re getting good press so far! (fingers crossed)

I hope that DC folks will be able to come out and see the exhibit. It’s really a pretty powerful presentation.

Filed under september 11 National Museum of American History dana milbank washington post exhibit museum work press

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It’s been a whirlwind couple of days as I helped to get the museum’s 9/11 anniversary exhibit together with my colleague Cedric. Here’s a video preview of the “objects out of storage” event which will be open for nine days starting tomorrow to commemorate the ten year anniversary.

It’s an unusual kind of exhibit for this museum - sparsely interpreted, emotional, and reflective, but honestly, I think it’s pretty cool. 

FF to 1:29 and 3:00 for a sneak peek at the objects, which I helped to lay out yesterday.

Filed under september 11 National Museum of American History exhibit museum work

Notes

Right now, I’m almost certain that my officemate is getting ready to tell me to turn my music off because she’s getting tired of my precious indie folk. I’ll keep you updated on how accurate my ESP is today.

EDIT: No. She couldn’t hear my “banjos and whispers” over the sound of the power tools down the hall, but yes, she would have been irritated if she could have heard. I’ll take it.

Filed under music work office stuff

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More discoveries

I spent the day rehousing some turn-of-the-century photographs of West Point in nice archival envelopes. I’d found them stuffed into a box underneath a desk in one of our storage rooms. Just as I was giving myself a big pat on the back for doing some historical good for the world today, I found an Allied invasion map of France (marked  “Top Secret”) from 1944 wedged in underneath the box. Just another day…

Filed under National Museum of American History work museums wwII west point photo history 1940s