Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels, Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Chris Ward today planted the “survivor tree,” marking its homecoming to the World Trade Center site. Bloomberg, who is Chairman of the 9/11 Memorial, also announced the completion of structural steel for the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion.

9/11 survivors Keating Crown, Tom Canavan and Ret. FDNY Lt. Mickey Kross also attended the planting of the Survivor Tree.

The callery pear tree became known as the Survivor Tree after sustaining extensive damage, but living through the September 11, 2001, terror attacks at the World Trade Center. In October 2001, the tree with lifeless limbs, snapped roots and blackened trunk was discovered and freed from the piles of smoldering rubble in the plaza of the World Trade Center. The tree was originally planted in the 1970s in the vicinity of buildings four and five in the WTC complex near Church Street.

The damaged tree measured eight-feet tall when it arrived in November 2001 at the Parks Department’s Arthur Ross Nursery in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.  It was nursed back to health and today has grown to a height of about 30 feet. The tree returned to the site this morning from Van Cortlandt Park by a flatbed truck.

Now that it has been planted at the 9/11 Memorial, the tree will grow among hundreds of swamp white oak trees.

Updated: WABC reported on the survivor tree planting. The television station's website features several photos of the planting. Also, go to DNAinfo.com, to check out the story and photo gallery.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude. Through “The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial,” readers of The MEMO blog can share some of the unique vantage points captured by Amy.

Coming into view: The primary steel of the glass atrium of the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion gives the four-story structure a signature look.  Last week, the building was topped off, marking the completion of the installation of structural steel. In the coming months, the so-called curtain wall will help define the pavilion's shape. The pavilion will serve as an entryway to the museum, which opens in 2012 at bedrock at the World Trade Center site.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

The holidays are fast approaching. Share the gift of history by sponsoring a memorial cobblestone, which will  line the paths of the 9/11 Memorial’s plaza at the World Trade Center site – eight beautiful landscaped acres that will include two massive reflecting pools and more than 400 oak trees.

Cobblestones can be sponsored for $100 (plaza cobblestones) or $500 (glade cobblestones, which are located in a beautiful clearing that will be used for special ceremonies and gatherings).

Out of respect for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 and Feb. 26, 1993 attacks, cobblestones will not be inscribed with donor names. Electronic kiosks will be located on the plaza so donors can locate a sponsored cobblestone.

Place your order by Dec. 21 to receive your special holiday gift card. Cobblestones will be for available for sponsorship after the holidays and make meaningful gifts year round.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

The final round for voting has arrived, and we need your help more than ever.

In order to realize the 9/11 Memorial's mission to honor and remember the victims of 9/11 and the 1993 attacks, we are asking you to help us secure $200,000 from the American Express Members Project.

Voting is easy:

• Step 1: Vote! Visit the Members Project site here, click “register to vote” and then vote for the 9/11 Memorial under the “Arts & Culture” category.
• Step 2: Spread the word to your family and friends through e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. Use this link: bit.ly/bN1yOF.
• Step 3: IMPORTANT! Vote each week to ensure the 9/11 Memorial receives the much-needed $200,000.

Please help us to win this crucial funding. Vote now and visit national911memorial.org to learn more. Find us on Facebook too.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

This is the third and final story in a three-part series featuring words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while working as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN and others. Ragsdale hobby took  a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began two aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.

Aug. 3, 2004 led to finding one of my favorite pieces during my seven-year effort of collecting paper history of the 9/11 aftermath. I was on Liberty Island filming for C-SPAN the reopening of the Statue of Liberty, initially closed to the public for security reasons after the 2001 terror strikes.

Because members of the media were required to get there hours before the event to setup (we even had our own boat ride), I was able to secure several pieces of event memorabilia, including an official program featuring an image of Lady Liberty by artist Peter Max.

 The historic celebration began with a group of red berets singing "This Is My Country" in acapella, followed by an introduction by CNN anchor Aaron Brown, the event's MC.  

Other speakers included U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, former Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former president of WNET-TV, William F. Baker. There was also plenty of patriotic music from the Army’s 319th Statue of Liberty Band, the 82nd Airborne Division All-American Chorus and the U.S. Army Band Herald Trumpeters.  The entire affair ended with  three New York City fire boats putting on an impressive show with arches of colored red and white water. Very cool. 

 This was another memorable post-9/11 event I am sure a lot of people will remember, including me. 

By Michael Ragsdale

This is the second story in a three-part series featuring words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while working as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN and others. Ragsdale hobby took a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began two aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.

Meeting Lauren Manning, who suffered severe burns in the World Trade Center terror attacks of 2001, and her husband Greg was unforgettable.  

On May 21, 2003, I was assigned to cover the Programs in Occupational Therapy Convocation and Award ceremony at the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University Medical Center. After learning Lauren Manning would be the keynote speaker, I grabbed a program for her to sign and  approached her. With a huge grin on her face, she agreed to sign the program. With both hands wrapped partially in protective gloves, she grabbed the pen and signed it.

Watching her simply sign her name reminded me of the horror she survived on 9/11.  

Manning, who suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body, delivered stirring remarks. In her address she praised occupational therapy graduates for choosing such a noble field and gave them advice on how to secure the trust of their patients.  Talking personally, she recalled her years of struggling with pain. She said the words "you'll be fine" she heard from her caretakers were important.

Manning also told the crowd how she was injured on 9/11, engulf by a wall of fire in the lobby of One World Trade Center. A man extinguished her flames as she sprawled on a patch of grass across the street from the World Trade Center.  

“I remember looking up at the flames that were raging above, and looking to the left and to the right and seeing every blade of glass with razor precision. And at the end of my arms my hands were white. They were beautiful, sculptures made up of parathion wax. Everything was perfectly shaped, perfectly formed. But something was obviously and terribly wrong,” she said during her speech.

Weeks later, she awoke sedated in a hospital bed, learning of the death of her friends and colleagues. Her husband, who also autographed a program for me, wrote a book about his wife's courage called "Love, Greg & Lauren."

A most memorable event for all to be at.

By Michael Ragsdale

This is the first story in a three-part series featuring words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while working as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN and others. Ragsdale hobby took a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he began two aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.

Almost every acquisition I amassed over the years is significant in its own way.  But a stand out is filming former Vice President Dick Cheney’s first public speech on Oct. 18, 2001, after the terrorist attacks a month earlier. At the time, I worked on a C-SPAN video crew and filmed Cheney’s speech at the 56th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation's dinner, a fundraiser benefiting the Catholic charities.

He would deliver his speech at a lectern near several rows of tables occupied by New York’s religious, media as well as the state’s political leaders, including former Gov. George Pataki.

Cheney began his remarks with a few jokes about his unknown whereabouts that included a few popular conspiracy theories. His comedic tone would turn serious. Before the solemn crowd inside the Waldorf Astoria ballroom, Cheney spoke about the tragic death of New York Fire Department chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, who died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center site.

“Americans can’t wait for justice to be delivered – it will,” Cheney said, adding the United States was going to engage in a “war unlike any we have seen before.”

During the event, I collected several pieces of event ephemera and came away from the benefit dinner with the autograph of Irish tenor Ronan Tynan. Tynan began the affair by making a lot of people teary-eyed, including me. How so? By singing “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” and “God Bless America.”

Being a New Yorker, among hundreds of others in attendance whose home city was attacked so violently only five weeks earlier, and then hearing Tynan sing as he did got to us all. It is something I will never forget.

By Michael Ragsdale

Starting tomorrow, The MEMO blog will carry a three-part series featuring the words from ephemera collector Michael Ragsdale.  Ragsdale has been a collector of New York City event-specific paper ephemera and autographs since 1997.  He started collecting the items for fun while he worked as a cameraman capturing various events for  C-SPAN, Columbia University, the Manhattan Institute, the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals of Columbia and Cornell and others. 

His collecting took a new direction on the morning of September 11, 2001. Ragsdale began two separate aftermath-related collecting efforts, both important and unique.  One of his collections, which totals 4,000 individual pieces and took 14 months to build, was acquired by the 9/11 Memorial Museum for use in exhibitions when the space opens in 2012 at the World Trade Center site. He has retained the second collection - "a seven-year paper history" of 3,000 pieces and 500 autographs. What began as a hobby has become an important contribution in conveying the story of 9/11.  

Over the next three days, Ragsdale will share stories about some of the pieces in his collection.  

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Dr. Paul Lioy is a professor and the Vice Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is also the Director of Exposure Science at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University and author of the book, “Dust: The Inside Story of its Role in the September 11 Aftermath.” During the interview, Dr. Lioy summarizes the different phases of exposure in the days and weeks after 9/11, emphasizing the features and health effects of the World Trade Center dust.

 The “Exploring 9/11″ webcast series is exclusively produced for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and is hosted by Clifford Chanin, senior program advisor for the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Check our website each month for a new installment in the series. If you missed previous webcasts, find it on The MEMO blog or visit national911memorial.org.

                                                                                                By 9/11 Memorial Staff 

On 9/11, many people recall a day that began like any other, marked by a strikingly clear blue sky. They can vividly identify where they were or what they were doing as the attacks began to unfold.

Prior to the crash of the first plane into the North Tower, New York was bustling with activity, typical of the morning rush. Parents sent children off to school, which had just resumed after Labor Day. Many hastened to the polls to do their civic duty by voting in the city’s primary elections. Some slept in, slow to shake off the Monday Night Football game that ran late into the night. In retrospect, these quotidian activities may have played a substantial role in saving lives, as they placed many World Trade Center employees far from their workstations, delaying the early birds.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum is actively acquiring materials relating to the Sept. 11  primaries as part of a larger effort to document the disruptions to notions of “normalcy” that prevailed before 8:46 a.m.. One example is a campaign button worn by supporters of Betsy Gotbaum, who was running as a Democrat for public advocate. Gotbaum was on the streets that morning, urging passerby’s to vote.  After the attacks, then-governor George Pataki declared a statewide emergency and rescheduled the elections for Sept. 25. The button recalls New York City’s focus on the hotly fought contests across the five boroughs.

Other election-related materials in the permanent collection include various brochures, pamphlets and mailers. This collection is a work in progress, and the museum’s curator would be eager to receive additional Sept. 11 primary day artifacts. All are invited to help participate in the creation of the exhibition by sharing memories, objects, photos and other materials with Museum. Donate through our website or contact the Memorial and Museum by phone, 212 312 8800.

By Jan Ramirez, Chief Curator of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum

Alexandra Drakakis, Administrative Curatorial Assistant for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum contributed.