MOBILE, Ala. – Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation, a traveling exhibition by the New York State Museum documenting the historic recovery effort to locate human remains, personal objects and material evidence from the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC), opens at 10am on September 11 at The Museum of Mobile as the first venue of this international traveling exhibit.

The exhibition, which runs to December 2nd, includes 50 photographs, 56 recovered artifacts and interpretive text panels. The artifacts come from the New York State Museum’s extensive collection of objects, art, oral histories and memorial material obtained from Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills Landfill.

Firefighters, iron workers, engineers, contractors, police officers, and volunteers eventually removed 1.8 million tons of debris from Ground Zero to the landfill. The recovery operation had three objectives: to find human remains, personal effects, and any evidence of the terrorist attack, and the operation quickly evolved from simple hand sorting into an elaborate technical sifting and sorting process.

The New York State Museum staff became well acquainted with the army of workers from the New York Police Department (NYPD), FBI, 25 state and federal

agencies and 14 private contractors, whose daunting, exacting task was the sorting and examination of the World Trade Center material. In addition to

collecting artifacts, Museum staff documented operations, taking photos of the stark landscape of Fresh Kills, the sorting and sifting operations, hundreds of

debris piles and vehicles, and the people involved in the recovery process.

The resulting exhibition begins with a timeline of the events on September 11, 2001. The recovered World Trade Center artifacts include an American flag, souvenirs, building keys, signs, firearms, sections of the building facade, marble floor, and airplane fragments. Among the rescue-related objects are a NYPD radio holster, a firefighter’s boot and air tank harness and the door from a destroyed Fire Department of New York truck.

The Museum of Mobile opened in its present location 10 days after 9-11. The staff wanted an exhibit to honor our 10th anniversary with the same reverence that we experienced during that time. MOM Director, David Alsobrook says, “I think this exhibit exemplifies the unique role that museums can play nationally and locally in educating the public and commemorating important events and times in our history.  The key elements of historical memory sometimes are unpleasant and traumatic. Thus, a museum seeks remembrance and commemoration of what’s often uncomfortable and disturbing, and this exhibit contributes to the ongoing grieving and healing processes and brings our communities closer together, both nationally and locally.”

The Museum will have a memory wall outside the exhibit so visitors may look back to September 11, 2001 and add their thoughts of what they were doing and where they were when they learned of the first tower being attacked.

For more information on this exhibit and upcoming exhibits, please call 251-208-7569 or visit www.museumofmobile.com. The Museum of Mobile is located at 111 South Royal Street in historic downtown.