This is the third and final story in a three-part series featuring words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while working as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN and others. Ragsdale hobby took  a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began two aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.

Aug. 3, 2004 led to finding one of my favorite pieces during my seven-year effort of collecting paper history of the 9/11 aftermath. I was on Liberty Island filming for C-SPAN the reopening of the Statue of Liberty, initially closed to the public for security reasons after the 2001 terror strikes.

Because members of the media were required to get there hours before the event to setup (we even had our own boat ride), I was able to secure several pieces of event memorabilia, including an official program featuring an image of Lady Liberty by artist Peter Max.

 The historic celebration began with a group of red berets singing "This Is My Country" in acapella, followed by an introduction by CNN anchor Aaron Brown, the event's MC.  

Other speakers included U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, former Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former president of WNET-TV, William F. Baker. There was also plenty of patriotic music from the Army’s 319th Statue of Liberty Band, the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus and the U.S. Army Band Herald Trumpeters.  The entire affair ended with  three New York City fire boats putting on an impressive show with arches of colored red and white water. Very cool. 

 This was another memorable post-9/11 event I am sure a lot of people will remember, including me. 

By Michael Ragsdale

This is the second story in a three-part series featuring words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while working as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN and others. Ragsdale hobby took a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began two aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.

Meeting Lauren Manning, who suffered severe burns in the World Trade Center terror attacks of 2001, and her husband Greg was unforgettable.  

On May 21, 2003, I was assigned to cover the Programs in Occupational Therapy Convocation and Award ceremony at the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University Medical Center. After learning Lauren Manning would be the keynote speaker, I grabbed a program for her to sign and  approached her. With a huge grin on her face, she agreed to sign the program. With both hands wrapped partially in protective gloves, she grabbed the pen and signed it.

Watching her simply sign her name reminded me of the horror she survived on 9/11.  

Manning, who suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body, delivered stirring remarks. In her address she praised occupational therapy graduates for choosing such a noble field and gave them advice on how to secure the trust of their patients.  Talking personally, she recalled her years of struggling with pain. She said the words "you'll be fine" she heard from her caretakers were important.

Manning also told the crowd how she was injured on 9/11, engulf by a wall of fire in the lobby of One World Trade Center. A man extinguished her flames as she sprawled on a patch of grass across the street from the World Trade Center.  

“I remember looking up at the flames that were raging above, and looking to the left and to the right and seeing every blade of glass with razor precision. And at the end of my arms my hands were white. They were beautiful, sculptures made up of parathion wax. Everything was perfectly shaped, perfectly formed. But something was obviously and terribly wrong,” she said during her speech.

Weeks later, she awoke sedated in a hospital bed, learning of the death of her friends and colleagues. Her husband, who also autographed a program for me, wrote a book about his wife's courage called "Love, Greg & Lauren."

A most memorable event for all to be at.

By Michael Ragsdale

This is the first story in a three-part series featuring words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while working as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN and others. Ragsdale hobby took a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began two aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.

Almost every acquisition I amassed over the years is significant in its own way.  But a stand out is filming former Vice President Dick Cheney’s first public speech on Oct. 18, 2001, after the terrorist attacks a month earlier. At the time, I worked on a C-SPAN video crew and filmed Cheney’s speech at the 56th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation's dinner, a fundraiser benefiting the Catholic charities.

He would deliver his speech at a lectern near several rows of tables occupied by New York’s religious, media as well as the state’s political leaders, including former Gov. George Pataki.

Cheney began his remarks with a few jokes about his unknown whereabouts that included a few popular conspiracy theories. His comedic tone would turn serious. Before the solemn crowd inside the Waldorf Astoria ballroom, Cheney spoke about the tragic death of New York Fire Department chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, who died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center site.

“Americans can’t wait for justice to be delivered – it will,” Cheney said, adding the United States was going to engage in a “war unlike any we have seen before.”

During the event, I collected several pieces of event ephemera and came away from the benefit dinner with the autograph of Irish tenor Ronan Tynan. Tynan began the affair by making a lot of people teary-eyed, including me. How so? By singing “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” and “God Bless America.”

Being a New Yorker, among hundreds of others in attendance whose home city was attacked so violently only five weeks earlier, and then hearing Tynan sing as he did got to us all. It is something I will never forget.

By Michael Ragsdale

Starting tomorrow, The MEMO blog will carry a three-part series featuring the words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while he worked as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN, Columbia University, the Manhattan Institute, the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals of Columbia and Cornell and others. 

His collecting took a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001. Ragsdale began two separate aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.  One of his collections, which totals 4,000 individual pieces and took 14 months to build, was acquired by the 9/11 Memorial Museum for use in exhibitions when the space opens in 2012 at the World Trade Center site. He has retained the second collection - "a seven-year paper history" of 3,000 pieces and 500 autographs. What began as a hobby has become an important contribution in conveying the story of 9/11.  

Over the next three days, Ragsdale will share stories about some of the pieces in his collection.  

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Above: Michael Ragsdale discusses pieces of his collection with 9/11 Memorial Museum exhibition researcher Liz Mazucci. (Photo by Michael Frazier)

After watching the Sept. 11 attacks unfold, Michael Ragsdale started a personal campaign to collect fliers, cards and brochures that marked the day’s events and the subsequent months.

“I decided to collect stuff that I felt would be ignored,” he said.

Seeing the North Tower on fire, Ragsdale said he knew something unprecedented was happening and sensed the towers may not exist much longer.  He quickly went down to the site, feeling compelled to grab any memorabilia.  He took a couple hundred World Trade Center brochures shortly before the towers fell.

Ragsdale, who has been an autograph collector since 1997, began collecting this 9/11 ephemera over the 14 months following the attacks.

“I had the opportunity to do it, so I did it,” he said.

Ragsdale collected pieces such as event fliers that organizations handed out on the streets.  One flier read: “Protest Fire Bombings Against Arab Stores."  He also collected warning signs posted around ground zero and the World Trade Center site, including one that said, “Crime Scene Search Area: Stop."

He said the most shocking piece he collected was a sign he got from around ground zero that read “Warning: Poison.”

Ragsdale's ephemera collection was acquired by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum for display in future exhibitions. The collection has more than 4,100 pieces.  These collected items are to become part of the showcases highlighting the aftermath of the attacks.

Image A: A flier posted by the New York City Police Department near ground zero, indicating "Crime Scene Search Area STOP".  Image B: A flier that was handed out asking for volunteers to show support for ground zero rescue workers.

By Meghan Walsh, Communications Associate with the 9/11 Memorial