American history museum to host exhibit on Sept. 11

The National Museum of American History will on Saturday kick off a nine-day exhibition of more than 50 objects related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the museum said on Thursday. Materials collected from the three sites of the attacks -- New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, -- will be displayed at the "September 11: Remembrance and Reflection," curators of the museum said during a media preview of the show. The exhibition also features the museum's recent acquisitions from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that reflect how American lives have changed since then. "Each of us has a story about Sept. 11," said Marc Pachter, the museum's interim director. "This display provides a place to remember and share our personal experiences as well as those of others." To create an intimate experience for visitors, the objects will be shown on tables rather than behind glass. "This is an unprecedented close-up view of the Sept. 11 objects, " said Pachter. Items on display include airplane fragments, a door from a crushed FDNY fire truck, a flight attendant's handbook from Flight 93, a Pentagon map from the building's second floor and objects recovered from offices. Recent acquisitions from the TSA include a training figure used by the Federal Air Marshal Service, a metal detector and a shirt from the first official screener uniform, worn by a member of the TSA workforce. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 when Al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and intentionally crashed them into the Twin Towers of World Trade Center in New York, and Pentagon in Virginia. One plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake the control of the plane.