Posts Tagged ‘commemoration’
On the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, memorials and exhibits served to preserve and sustain public memory. This year’s anniversary marked the culmination of years of effort for two major commemorations in the Mid-Atlantic, the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The anniversary also saw the dedication of local memorials and openings of special exhibits across the region. Although we cannot provide a complete list, the following are memorials and commemorations highlighted earlier on our news page. Jersey City dedicated “Empty Sky” on September 11, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology opened Excavating Ground Zero: Fragments From 9/11, and The New York Historical Society opened a commemorative exhibit, Remembering 9/11.
The New York Metro American Studies Association’s annual one day conference, Memory, will be held November 5, 2011 at Parsons, the New School for Design. Morning sessions begin at 9:00 and include “Urban Memory,” “Traumatic Memory,” “Sites of Memory,” and “Official and Suppressed Memories.” The afternoon sessions, “The Materials of Memory” and “Mediated Memory” begin at 2:00. Registration is $20/$10 for students.
The anniversary of September 11, 2001 has sparked much discussion on the role of museums in collecting and commemorating tragedy. One such piece posted on the National Postal Museum website by Nancy A. Pope, considers the process of collecting objects following a national tragedy, what do you keep, why do you keep it? How do you collect and preserve and respect the event while still ensuring that every day processes continue? Written by Jeffrey Brodi, September 11: Collecting for the National Postal Museum is the first in a two part series on Brodi’s personal experiences collecting items for the NPM.
After 9/11, pieces of steel were distributed throughout the country. Coatesville, PA received twenty of the support columns from the north tower. When they decide on a monument, and raise the requisite funds, it stands to be one of the largest 9/11 monuments in the country. Read more here. The 9/11 memorial in New York City faces financial issues as well, as questions of maintenance costs collide with memorialization. Who should pay?
The American Association for State and Local History is holding its 2011 conference in Richmond, VA. “Commemoration: The Promise of Remembrance and New Beginnings,” starts September 14 and closes on September 16. From the program guide: “Remembrance is a dynamic challenge that poses potential conflicts when we must decide whose lens to use to see the past.” The AASLH meeting provides a platform for discussing the changing meaning of historic events, sites and people. You can register on-site starting September 13th. Those unable to make this event in real life can attend an alternative online version of the event.
As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, numerous memorials, commemorations, and exhibits mark the event. A few notable stories: In Jersey City, the “Empty Sky” memorial will be dedicated on September 10th at 11:00 a.m. The Shanksville Memorial honoring United flight 93 will be dedicated at 12:30 p.m. The dedication will be webcasted at History.com. Avery Fisher Hall hosts a free remembrance concert by the New York Philharmonic at 7:30 p.m. The Pentagon is limiting public access to The Pentagon Memorial, which opened in 2008 on Sunday, instead holding a private remembrance for the families of those lost on 9/11. “Remembering 9/11″ a special exhibition of photographs, letters and objects is open at the New York Historical Society until November 10. The 9/11 Memorial in New York City will be dedicated in a ceremony for victim’s families, and opens to the general public on September 12. In Washington D.C., events scheduled to occur at the National Cathedral’s “A Call To Compassion,” including concerts, discussion groups, and interfaith prayer vigil have moved following an accident on-site. These events and the multitude of 9/11 stories on the internet, newspapers, and television beg questions of how we remember as individuals and as a community.
“Excavating Ground Zero: Fragments From 9/11″ Exhibit at U Penn Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology exhibit, “Excavating Ground Zero:Fragments from 9/11” runs now through November 6. The exhibit consists of objects found at the WTC site, since September 11, 2001. At one p.m. this Sunday, September 11, museum visitors can attend the lecture, “Making a Monument: The Fall and Rise of the World Trade Center,” by Penn art historian David Brownlee. Outside the Wire, a Brooklyn based performance-and-discussion troupe will perform Cato 9/11 at 3pm. The performance includes a dramatic reading of Joseph Addison’s 1713 play Cato: A Tragedy, followed by an open discussion. More information about the exhibit and the special events commemorating 9/11, can be found on Penn Museum website. ”Excavating Ground Zero” was organized in conjunction with The National September 11 Memorial Museum. This story was originally featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The National Capital Planning Committee’s interactive map Memorials in Washington DC went live recently. The map uses information from Washington as Commemoration, a joint research project undertaken by the NCPC and the National Park Service. Clicking on a memorial leads to an individual entry denoting the site’s “full history and significance.” Visitors to the site can explore the memorials by name, but location on the map, or by subject theme. Foursquare users can check in at memorials, upload photos and leave tips for their friends. As an added bonus, the most frequent foursquare visitor to a memorial becomes “Mayor.” The site is a work-in-progress, with a goal of plotting and describing every D.C. memorial, present and planned.
(From H-Pennsylvania): August 13, 2011 will commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the lynching of Zachariah Walker in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The violence received national and international attention and resulted in the reluctant prosecution of fifteen men and teenage boys. All were found not guilty at trial.
The Coatesville Historical Commission and several community organizations are coming together to sponsor a day-long program in Coatesville on August 13. A remembrance service, community forum and public presentation will mark the hundred anniversary in Coatesville. Other events are being planned throughout Chester County and the surrounding area. To commemorate the hundredth anniversary, The History Press has issued a new paperback edition of Dennis B. Downey and Raymond M. Hyser’s award-winning 1991 book No Crooked Death: Coatesville and the Lynching of Zachariah Walker, fully revised and updated.
On April 12, the anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter came alive with the blasting of email promotions, Twitter messages, and Facebook postings to call our attention to the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Although most of the military action of the Civil War took place in the South, there will be no shortage of commemoration throughout the Mid-Atlantic over the next four years. Our region includes major fields of battle in Maryland and Pennsylvania, of course, and urban centers that transported and supplied the Union army. More than past anniversaries of the Civil War, the days ahead will focus attention on the experience of the northern home front and the diversity of the American population in 1861 and 2011.
In the Mid-Atlantic, we also bring to this commemoration our memory of other anniversaries in which our region stood more at the center of the stage — the Bicentennial of the Constitution in 1787 and especially the Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1976. In the interest of reflective practice, might we look back to the 1976 Bicentennial, especially, as a lesson in the meaning and significance of commemoration? Now thirty-five years in the past, the Bicentennial remains in living memory but has receded far enough into the past to allow for historical perspective on the nation’s celebration of its founding. Among the lasting legacies of the Bicentennial are the challenges of sustaining historic sites created in 1976 as we now confront a period of diminished government funding.
What are the legacies of 1976? What is the potential impact of today’s commemoration of the Civil War? We opened this discussion at the recent Middle Atlantic American Studies Association Conference, “Heritage and the State,” with presentations by Todd Bennett of East Carolina University; Max van Balgooy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; and Barbara Pollarine of Valley Forge National Historical Park. Please add to their thoughts about the Bicentennial, its lasting legacy, and any connections or contrasts you see with the Sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War.
