There were many things considered when selecting material for the National September 11 Memorial Museum and apparently making sure the museum wasn’t too “vehemently” patriotic was one of them.
Elizabeth Greenspan’s book “Battle for Ground Zero: Inside the Political Struggle to Rebuild the World Trade Center” hits shelves next month, revealing that the iconic photo of firefighters hoisting the American flag on top of where New York City’s Twin Towers once stood was almost omitted from the museum for being too pro-America.
“I really believe that the way America will look best, the way we can really do best, is to not be Americans so vigilantly and so vehemently,” Michael Shulan, the museum’s creative director told The New York Post.
The photo, taken by Thomas E. Franklin of the North Jersey Record, went viral in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, but was only finally accepted into the museum on a compromise. According to The Post, Jan Ramirez, chief curator finally got Shulan to agree that the ‘one iconic moment’ myth would be subdued if Franklin’s photograph was shrunk and featured alongside three different photos of the same scene.
Since Franklin captured the moment, the photo accumulated at least 15 awards, including earning Franklin a spot as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002. But the picture was almost too “simple” for Shulan.
“My concern, as it always was, is that we do not reduce [9/11] down to something that was too simple, and in its simplicity would actually distort the complexity of the event, the meaning of the event,” Shulan said, also stating that Greenspan might not have written about the discussion over the photo in quite the same manner he would have.
According to the museum’s website, it is “actively acquiring materials for its permanent collection such as photographs, videotapes, voice messages, recovered property, clothing and other personal effects, workplace memorabilia, incident-specific documents, and original writings including letters, e-mails and diaries that help to illuminate people’s experiences during and after September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993.”
However, according to The Post, the museum does not display any human remains — including dust that has tested positive for DNA — or photographs of body parts.
