The Museum Exhibition Design

Historical Exhibition

Part 1: The Day-9/11

The opening section of the historical exhibition will present the events of the day as they unfolded on September 11, 2001. Visitors will learn how the normalcy of a beautiful late summer day was overtaken by a sense of shock, disbelief and increasing horror as America came under attack. Using artifacts, images, video, first-person testimony, and real-time audio recordings from 9/11, the exhibition will provide insight into the human drama underway within the hijacked airplanes, the Twin Towers, and the Pentagon; the courageous actions of first responders and civilians assisting one another, and the experiences of people near and far from the attack sites, as day turned to night and our collective sense of history had changed: there would now forever be a “before 9/11” and an “after 9/11”.

Part 2: Before 9/11

 
Design Study by Thinc Design with Local Projects

After learning about the day of the 9/11 attacks, visitors will enter a gallery that chronicles the antecedents to 9/11, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The evolution of the terrorist network behind the 9/11 plot, al Qaeda, will also be addressed. Featuring trial evidence, oral testimony, and archival news footage, the exhibition will explore why terrorists twice targeted the World Trade Center, taking visitors from the origins of the 9/11 plot to the morning of September 11.

Part 3: After 9/11

 
Design Study by Thinc Design with Local Projects

The culminating chapter of the historical exhibition will take visitors from the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to the present moment, exploring the character and challenges of the post-9/11 world. From presentations on collective grief, global responses, and the search for the missing in the immediate days and weeks after the attacks, the exhibition will explore the prodigious efforts of recovery and rebuilding at the three attack sites, describing innumerable acts of compassion, volunteerism and public service. A concluding presentation presents the ongoing questions arising out of 9/11, and the evolving nature of how we understand its significance and place in history.