Emily Ambery | staff writer
Sept. 16, 2021
This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. To recognize the 20th anniversary, Gumberg Library is currently hosting a free, educational 9/11 Memorial and Museum exhibit highlighting personal stories of witnesses and survivors.
The exhibit is located on the fourth Popular Reading Room and is open to visitors through Monday, Sept 27.
The exhibit, Sept 11, 2001: The Day that Changed the World, consists of 14 posters which includes archival photographs and images of artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum’s permanent collection.
“September 11th had such a broad-reaching impact certainly for people that experienced it, but also for people who were not born yet, as well,” said university archivist Thomas White. “[The Poster Exhibit] gives everyone a sense of the day and its importance, especially because 20 years later we are still dealing with the fallout. It changed everything from the way Americans lived their lives to foreign policy.”
The exhibition also explores the different aspects of the 9/11 attacks and their enduring impact today. Some of the posters discuss the immediate aftermath of the attack such as, recovery efforts, emergency response, mourning and solidarity. Other posters entitled “20 Years Later” examine the long term consequences of the attack, such as remembrance, rebuilding, health effects and the global war on terror.
“The specific stories about the individual people, as most panels highlight a person or artifact, are really meaningful and interesting,” White said.
The poster exhibition was developed by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Located at the site where the Twin Towers once stood, the museum’s goal is to educate people on the history of the 9/11 attacks and 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The Museum documents survivors’ stories, artifacts from the recovery efforts and the aftermath of the attack.
“The 9/11 memorial museum had this free exhibit and with our resources, we were able to download and print the posters and share them with students and faculty,” White said. “The text and the panels were created for the anniversary and are basically the same ones you would see at the museum in New York, just without the actual artifacts.”
“The exhibit is really educational and presents perspectives and stories that I had never heard before,” Lucy Barber, sophomore Occupational Therapy major, said. “It illustrates how even though this happened 20 years ago, it is still impacting our culture today.”
Up Next in the Popular Reading Room:
Decipher Victory: An exhibit from the Republic of Poland
On Oct 1 from 7 – 9 p.m., Dr. Roman Sznajder, Professor of Mathematics and Graduate Program Coordinator in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Bowie State University will give the main presentation on, “The Role of the Poles in Breaking the Enigma Code.”
From Oct 4 through 15, Gumberg Library will open an Enigma Exhibit in the Popular Reading Room. The exhibit will spotlight early Polish successes in breaking the Enigma code, the German Military’s encoded strategic messages. It will also highlight the strong British-Polish collaboration before and during World War II (WWII).
“Coming in October, we will exhibit one of the WWII enigma machines from the Polish Embassy, that they used to decode the Nazi secret communications,” Thomas White, university archivist, said. “We will have an exhibit here in the library and a speaker who will feature the Polish perspective on the Enigma code.”
