At two and a half years old, Christine Lee Hanson was the youngest of the eight children who were killed on 9/11, all passengers aboard the aircraft commandeered by terrorists. Christine’s life will be remembered through the display of her beloved Peter Rabbit, which will be installed in the 9/11 Museum’s Memorial Exhibition Thursday, June 11, after closing. 

On September 11, 2001, Christine and her parents, Peter and Sue Kim Hanson, left their residence in Groton, Mass. and boarded United Flight 175 at Logan Airport. The family was flying to Los Angeles to visit Sue Kim’s relatives, followed by a trip to Disneyland. The hijacked plane never reached its destination. Two other children died on the same flight when it crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. 

Christine was a bright, busy toddler who loved taking trips to the playground and helping her father in the garden. An attentive caretaker of her toys, she favored a stuffed Peter Rabbit character from the classic Beatrix Potter series. It was given to her by her grandmother, Eunice Hanson, in acknowledgement of Christine’s birth in the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. Peter Rabbit replaced Christine’s previously best-loved plaything: a red Teletubby acquired in infancy that “went everywhere with her,” Eunice Hanson recalls.

In 2014, both of these cherished keepsakes were entrusted to the 9/11 Memorial Museum by her grandparents, Eunice and Lee Hanson. Two Winnie the Pooh stickers that Christine placed on Peter Rabbit’s torso are still attached. “She put stickers on everything she liked; I suppose it was her mark of approval,” Eunice Hanson said.

Included in the Hanson’s gift to the Museum was a photograph of Christine celebrating her first birthday, with the word Peace incised on the picture frame. “The Peace frame containing Christine’s picture, taken in a traditional Korean outfit, is most poignant,” said Eunice Hanson. “That one word describes Christine’s parents, who were loving people and believed in kindness. I could ask volumes of questions why this happened to them, given who they were.”

By Jan Seidler Ramirez, Chief Curator and Vice President of Collections

This story originally ran on September 17, 2012. We are republishing it as a part of our #FDNY150 tribute in honor of the New York City Fire Department's 150 year anniversary.

 Among the staggering statistics resulting from the 9/11 attacks are those associated with New York City’s fire department. On Sept. 11, at the World Trade Center, it suffered the loss of 343 firefighters, whose deaths represented 4,400 years of cumulative training, nerve and wisdom. When the towers collapsed, age and experience on the job were meaningless protections. Fate claimed chiefs and “probies” alike that morning.  

When the south tower toppled and fell onto his command post, William M. Feehan perished. At age 71 he was the oldest first responder killed on 9/11. The FDNY veteran was also a living legend, having held every rank within the department from his 1959 appointment as a probationary firefighter through his promotion to firefighter (Division 3, Ladder 3), lieutenant, chief of department, deputy fire commissioner and first deputy fire commissioner.  Although holding a civilian administrative title on 9/11, he had remained Chief Feehan in the parlance of thousands of uniformed firefighters who worked with him and alongside him. During his storied FDNY tenure, Feehan reportedly mastered the location of every fire hydrant in New York City.  As the son of a firefighter, he was pleased when one of his sons joined the FDNY, extending the family’s career tradition into a third generation. Feehan, a native of Long Island City, Queens, lived in Flushing.  

In the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s “In Memoriam” exhibition, Feehan will be remembered not only as a proud firefighter but also for the life he led off duty, which his four grown children take pride in recounting. This includes his distinguished service in the Army during the Korean War and his passion for military history, exampled in the expeditions he took to Civil War battlefields over the years. The cornerstone of his identify, however, was his dedication to the fire department, a reality honored in two extraordinary objects his family recently donated to the museum’s collection. The first, which is a New York State license plate reading 2 FD that was removed from the car in which Feehan sped downtown on 9/11,  shows his status as the FDNY’s second highest ranking official. On that day he was also the second highest ranking FDNY official killed, after Chief Peter Ganci.  Feehan’s colleagues retrieved the special plate and gave it to his children.  

The second object preserves his rank in a more explicit but intimate way: a gilt badge, bearing four stars and his title as first deputy commissioner, that Feehan wore on 9/11. It was recovered with his body. 

In 1992, an oral history with then-Chief Feehan was conducted by his son, Billy, and photographer Harvey Wang. The recording later was broadcast under the Sound Portraits radio documentaries name which preceded founder David Isay’s creation of StoryCorps. The 9/11 Memorial Museum is privileged to present a segment from it in homage to the integrity and devotion of the men and women of the New York City Fire Department, and for all those remarkable public servants who have risked, and paid the price of their lives, to save others in peril. 

By Jan Ramirez, Chief Curator and Vice President of Collections, 9/11 Memorial Museum

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum is among the world's top landmarks, according to TripAdvisor's 2015 Travelers' Choice Awards. 

TripAdvisor revealed the winners for both the United States and the world on Tuesday, June 2. The 9/11 Memorial ranked No. 4 overall in the US and was the top New York attraction, ranking among the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Other top US attractions include the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. and the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu.

Complete list of top attractions

By Hannah Coffman, Digital Content Manager 

One World Observatory has welcomed thousands of visitors since opening to the public last Friday, but many still remember visiting the original World Trade Center’s observation deck. One artifact in the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s collection tells the story of two people who were among the last visitors to see the view from the Top of the World.  

In September 2001, Winnipeg native Evan Kuz visited New York City. During his visit on September 10, while on the last boat back to Manhattan from Ellis Island, Kuz met a young woman named Kamilla from Eastern Europe. The two out-of-towners hit it off and decided to visit the WTC’s observation deck together. The two arrived late in the afternoon and stayed until shortly before closing. Due to the stormy weather, they agreed to return to the observation deck the following morning, September 11 at 8:45 a.m., in hopes the skies would be clear.

The next morning, Kuz went for a run before the planned reunion and was subsequently running late. Upon returning, he learned of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and frantically tried calling the cell phone number Kamilla had written on his observation deck ticket from the night before, but could not get through. Kuz assumed she was at the World Trade Center.

He finally reached Kamilla on September 12 and discovered that she too had been running late that morning and never made it downtown. The two met the following day in Times Square and that was the last time they saw each other.

In 2009, Kuz met with Museum curators and recounted his story. He also donated his September 10, 2001 observation deck ticket stub. “This is a piece of history,” he recalled. “I think it belongs in other people’s hands other than mine.”

 By Jenny Pachucki, Content Strategist

In recognition of the anniversary of the formal end of the recovery effort at Ground Zero, below is an oral history recounted by an iron worker who participated in those efforts.

(Audio)

William Quindlan, a Local 40 iron worker who worked on the construction of the World Trade Center in the late 1960s and the rescue and recovery effort after 9/11, recounts his memories of the Last Column and working at Ground Zero. On May 28, 2002, Quindlan helped prepare the Last Column for a private ceremony held that evening for rescue and recovery workers. Known as “the Last Column cut down ceremony,” workers signed the beam to mark the end of the recovery effort at the WTC site. Two days later, the Last Column was ceremoniously removed from the site, officially marking the end of the nine-month effort.

In honor of the 13th anniversary of this historic event, on May 28, the Museum will have extended hours from 4 p.m. to midnight for the 9/11 rescue and recovery worker community. A special tribute with a moment of silence to honor those who responded, including those who lost their lives to 9/11-related illnesses, will take place at 6 p.m. in Foundation Hall. Learn more about how to register.
 

More recovery workers stories

By Jenny Pachucki, Content Strategist