Currently at the Memorial & Museum
Preserving History...
Museum Collections Benefit from Artifact Donations
August 30, 2010
A lot of people do not know that the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum is a collecting institution. What does that mean? It means that the Museum interprets, documents, and collects materials related to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Specifically, we are the national repository of everything related to that incident and collect items related to the history of the site, the rescue and recovery, reaction to the incident, the implications and ramifications of the incident, the trials and investigation and the memorial process. The images, documents and artifacts are displayed in the Museum, used by researchers in our Archives or utilized in the Memorial’s education and outreach programs. How do we acquire these materials? We acquire them through the generous donations of people like you. Items are given by individuals whose lives have been touched by the Murrah Building bombing and the Memorial.
Last week, Chief of Staff to the Mayor David Holt donated a remarkable artifact that he picked up when he was 16 years old. He was walking in front of the rectory of St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral, half a block from the shell of the damaged Murrah Building just after the rescue efforts concluded. There was a small pile of debris in front of the rectory and near the top was a copy of the April 19, 1995, Daily Oklahoman newspaper. According to Holt, “Considering the proximity to the attack, and its final snapshot of the life we knew before the bombing, it seemed to me a fairly remarkable artifact. I picked it up, and have kept it ever since, in a box of other mementos from that time. I had not really thought about it much since, but recently decided it was significant enough that it should belong to the Museum, not me.”
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