Newseum 9/11 Gallery: Gratitude for Journalists
It is not a work of art. A wall which is full of orderly arranged rectangles. It almost looks like one of Andy Warhol’s Pop art. With a brief glimpse from a distance, the colorful images even seem artistic. But on this wall, actually lies a tragic and never-forgettable incident: the 9/11 attacks.
“I was coming out of the subway on 6th Avenue,” said Sockey Steven, 36, a banker from New York. “When I went into the subway, everything was fine. And I actually remember the weather. It’s a crazy thing. It was a great, beautiful morning.” Sockey took himself in a flashback as he contemplated through the orderly arranged images.
The 127 images on the wall are actually front pages of newspapers around the world that reported the story of September 11th, 2001. The wall is located in the 9/11 Gallery in the Newseum, an interactive museum headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Newseum promotes and explains free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment.
“I heard that there are a lot of things here in the Newseum. And I expected to come here on September 11th for the 9/11 exhibit,” said David Dew, 71, a retired librarian from Ohio. The 9/11 Gallery is one of 30 exhibits in the Newseum, which consists of 15 galleries and 15 theaters. Since its opening at D.C., the Newseum had more than 7 million visitors. Originally, it was founded on April 18th, 1997 in Arlington, Virginia. Then it relocated to downtown Washington, D.C. reopening on 2008.
“A photo here is very similar to my experience,” said Sockey, after he looked closely at each photo that surrounds a broadcast antenna from the World Trade Center’s North Tower. “Everyone was walking and kept walking until finally when we were able to get on a boat. Then I walked all the way home, spending the next three days, at least, lying on the sofa and watching the TV.”
The crippled, rusty antenna which is in the center of the 9/11 Gallery is bizarre enough to draw everyone’s attention. Whereas, in front of a chamber is placed a small Kleenex that might not be easily noticed by visitors. The chamber is for showing a dramatic documentary film dedicated to journalists who ran “toward danger” during 9/11. The Kleenex is there for those who burst into tears. “First, I was mourning for those who lost their family,” said Donna, 68, a retired banker. “The next day, I was hoping that they would find people buried alive, but alive. But that was not the case what actually happened.” It seemed like a few sheets of Kleenex were not enough to comfort her with emotional memories.
“But instead, we were shocked the next morning,” her husband, Stephen, 70, a retired banker continued. “We usually talk on the subway, but it was dead silence on the train. Everybody was getting the newspapers. Shock and fear.” “Then walking to my work was a total shock,” Donna added, wiping the tear from her cheeks. “Because then you could see the National Guard in their uniform with their rifles drawn, police at each post. It almost reminded me reading about World War II.”
Though not from World War II, there is an equipment in a gray wall right side of the antenna that looks like it came from a battlefield. The remains of the two cameras that used to belong to photographer Bill Biggart allow visitors to get a glimpse of what it looked like at the disaster scene. Bill Biggart was the only working journalist who died covering the terrorist attack.
“We didn’t know what was happening,” said David Kriete, 35, a commercial truck dealer, looking at Bill’s photos that were shot at the very last moments. “At first, when the plane hit, the building was going down. We didn’t know if it was a mistake or an attack. Then when the next plane dropped, it was all panic.”
“Come to think of it, I have to thank the journalists who were on the field. If it weren’t for them, how would have I figured out what was happening?”