Quilt Details
Quiltmaker Carol Mesimer
Location Virginia
Date 2002
Collection of Carol Mesimer
Detail images:
A total of 2,977 people died on September 11, 2001, when four commercial airplanes were taken over by terrorists, crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center in New York City. And within 102 minutes, both the North and South Towers of the towering World Trade Center collapsed, taking with them 110 stories each.
Everyone who is old enough to remember September 11 has a story to tell. We know where we were and how we felt. Though, as studies have shown, our memories of this cataclysmic event and other monumentally historic events don’t always exactly align with the facts of the day.
A consortium of academic memory researchers embarked on a study of how we remember September 11, an event considered a “flashbulb memory,” or a memory that can be imprinted on our minds like a photograph. Over 2,000 people were asked to describe their personal experiences of September 11 just days after the attack, and follow up surveys were sent at the one, three, and 10 year anniversaries.
After one year, people’s responses varied by about forty percent. At three years, that figure increased to fifty percent, with people misremembering where they were when they heard the news and other personal details of the day. While our personal memories may change or fade over time, recording and remembering the names of those lost helps keep the memories of individuals alive.
Additional Quilt Information:
Materials Cotton fabric, cotton batting
Technique Hand drawn images and handwritten names, hand quilted
Dimensions 89 x 45 inches
Further Resources
