New York City Fire Museum exhibit pays tribute to FDNY members killed on 9/11
NEW YORK -- A special exhibition at the New York City Fire Museum pays tribute to the FDNY and the sacrifices and heroism of 9/11.
"We do get visitors from all over the world who come to pay their respects in this memorial room specifically," said Jennifer Brown, the fire museum's executive director. "Many people come and leave memorabilia, as you can see, flowers. So this is the faces and the names and the ranks and the companies of all 343 members of FDNY who were killed on 9/11."
Fire service history is on display at the museum on Spring Street, and 9/11 is what gives it its heart.
The museum includes items recovered from the site of the attacks in the aftermath during the recovery efforts. Among the artifacts is the turnout coat of Father Mychal Judge, who was the chaplain of the FDNY on 9/11 and was killed responding to the attacks.
"We do like to add special exhibits during the anniversary month each year and so this year, we are opening a special temporary exhibit ... that actually tells the story of the 9/11 Tribute Museum and has panels from that museum, which was open in Lower Manhattan for about 16 years and closed about a year ago," Brown said.
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The museum contains many lessons for children, and that's what gives the firehouse-turned-museum an enduring power.
"We have an entire generation of people who weren't either alive on September 11th, 2001, or were so young that they don't remember it as a first-person account," Brown said. "This is the big draw for the younger audience in here."
Going back earlier into the FDNY's history, visitors can find artifacts from colonial times, an exhibit on the Great New York Fire of 1776 and photos taken by Jill Freedman in the 1970s.
"Jill Freedman was a very well-known street photographer, and in the 1970s, she embedded herself with fire companies in the South Bronx and Harlem. This is before there were women in the department," Brown said. "She wanted to show not only the bravery at the scene of fires but also the camaraderie and what happened behind the scenes."
The museum is full of reminders that bravery goes hand-in-hand with this tough job and ultimate sacrifice we must never forget.