Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: War and remembrance Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 15:01:10 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD War and remembrance \SH Museum to show items left at wall \BY Pam Weisz \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES A baby's pacifier shares the display case with a woman's blue high-heeled pump, a box of Lucky Strike cigarettes and a six-pack of Budweiser. Rows of military medals sit near a pair of black lace panties and a teddy bear. The objects - some of the thousands of keepsakes left in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall - are among 500 such mementos being displayed at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in an exhibit that opens today. People have been leaving things at the Wall, as the monument is commonly known, since it was dedicated in 1982, said Roger Kennedy, the museum's director. No other Washington monument has inspired such a practice, which Mr. Kennedy called an "astonishing and unprecedented expression of a joining together of people . . . in the presence of deep sorrow." For more than a year, a nonprofit agency called Beyond the Wall has been raising funds for an exhibition of the items left there. John Wheeler, a Vietnam veteran who served as the organization's fund-raising chairman, said it was something "that had to be done." Leaving a keepsake at the Wall "is an act of trust and a statement of grief," he said at a preview of the exhibit yesterday. "Our country has a duty to respond to that." Putting the objects on display "is a way of saying 'We treasure the object and we share your grief,' " he said. The items in the exhibit were picked up between 1982 and Oct. 31, 1991. Objects are still being collected twice daily, cataloged and stored, and the volume is increasing. Duery Felton, curator of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection, said 1,500 artifacts were collected between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July this year. Mr. Felton was instrumental in choosing which objects would be displayed, a task he acknowledged was difficult. "We tried to be representative of the types of things that are left," he said. "We tried to illustrate how these things have changed over the course of time." When the monument first opened, he said, most of what was left were small, simple mementos. Over time, the objects have gotten larger. People also give more thought now to preserving what they leave, often laminating letters or putting objects in plastic bags, Mr. Felton said. The exhibit has few labels and no attempts at analysis, a deliberate move on the part of the museum. "These are objects to contemplate, not to explain," said Ed Ezell, curator of the museum's division of armed forces history. Some of the objects come with their own explanations. "Dear Bobby, We played against each other four times in high school," says one note left beside a varsity letter "R." The note reminisces briefly about long-ago basketball games, then concludes, "I admired you quietly as an opponent and now it's time to make a physical gesture. I humbly offer you my varsity letter as an act of deference and awe." It is signed only "#14." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM