Currently at the Memorial & Museum

Preserving History...Museum Artifacts Tell a Story

August 15, 2011

The Memorial Archives is the repository of artifacts and documentary materials related to the April 19th bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and its aftermath. One of the Memorial’s important documentary and object collections is the memorial process which includes remembering those who were killed.

The memorial process officially began when Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick assembled a 350-member Task Force to look for ways to appropriately commemorate April 19, 1995. The Mission Statement notes they wanted to create a memorial “…to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever.” The Museum’s Gallery of Honor is one of the areas specifically dedicated to remembering those individuals’ lives. Family members were asked to provide a photograph and an item(s) from their loved one’s life to be placed in a shadow box.

This is the shadow box of 3 year old Zackary T. Chavez. In the Gallery of Honor interactive is a story by his mother, Alisha Chavez-Leach. “Zackary could watch the movie The Lion King many times and never grow tired of it. With no radio in the car he and I would often sing songs on our journeys from place to place. No matter what song we sang, he never missed a moment to recite Hakuna Matata…”

Visit the Museum’s Gallery of Honor interactive to read more about Zackary’s life and the lives of others who were killed in the bombing.

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