Where were you on Pearl Harbor Day? Where were you when President John Kennedy was shot? Where were you when Martin Luther King was shot? Where were you the day of the Kent State shootings? Where were you on September 11?A special exhibit that honors the memory of nearly 3,000 individuals, who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 and celebrates the freedoms that form the backbone of our nation, will be displayed at Allison-Antrim Museum, 365 South Ridge Avenue, Greencastle, Pa. from September 1 – 30, 2011.
Included in the exhibit are three large archival scrapbooks of newspaper articles from the 10 years that chronicle the timeline of events beginning September 11, 2001 through August 2011. September 2011 newspapers, local, state, and national, are hung so visitors can read the front pages. Visitors may spend as much time as they wish looking at and reading the collection. Among the books on the events of September 11 that will also be available for visitors to peruse is Portraits, a compilation of the New York Times’ Portraits of Grief column, which was published daily until all the victims of 9/11 were recognized. A photograph and 200 word essay that captured the essence of each person was the Times’ way of honoring each victim and allowing the world to put a face and meaning with each life – they are no longer just a number between one and three thousand.
Framed prints of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms – Freedom of Speech and Worship and Freedom from Want and Fear, were purchased by AAMI in 2002 and will be on display. The original canvasses, which toured the country for the WWII War Bond effort, were inspired by Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech. $133 million dollars’ worth of bonds was sold.
Artwork created by GAHS students in September 2001 and one year later in 2002, with their retrospective thoughts, will be exhibited. The teenagers’ art pieces are intense and insightful, with the raw feelings that reflect and say what everyone felt. These students are now 32 to 34 years of age. Photographs of how people and businesses in the Greencastle-Antrim area responded will also be exhibited. Former N.Y.C. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani donated an autographed New York Fire Department fireman’s cap. One unusual piece in the exhibit is a comic book. The creators of all the super heroes paid tribute to the real heroes in this September 2001magazine, not the imaginary ones they have created in their minds for their comic strips. A journal begun in September 2001, which records the thoughts of AAMI visitors about that infamous day, will be available for reading and writing one’s 2016 retrospective thoughts. One account was shared by Rev. Anna Straight, pastor at the Greencastle Presbyterian Church in September 2001. In it she shared her email correspondence with Rev. Jon Walton, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in NYC. In the email, he spoke about the first plane flying very low over the church, just seconds before it hit the first Tower. “The First 24 Hours,” a video will play in the background.
The “Remembering September 11th” exhibit will be a time to remember the 2,973 victims – the heroes, the innocents, and their families. They will not have died in vain if Americans always remember. No student today, K-12, has memories of September 11, 2001. Their connection to 9/11 is the aftermath, through which they’ve lived every day. All they know about September 11, 2001 is what they read in books or about what they hear their family members talk.
Allison-Antrim Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from noon – 4 pm and on Saturday, 11 am to 1 pm. For more information, please visit the website at www.greencastlemuseum.org, on Facebook, on Twitter @greencastlemuzm, or call the museum at 717-597-9010. There is no charge for admission but donations are accepted.