Object Details
- Description (Brief)
- one (1) flag
- Washington, D.C., 2020
- Description: white flag with metal pole and writing in black marker. red tag attached to metal pole (C3-12)
- Obverse Text: Gene P. Mater / An ardent defender of the free Press. You are missed terribly Dad <3 (heart) Grampy / Nov 27, 1926 --> Sept. 20, 2020
- As COVID-19 deaths spiked in 2020, Suzanne Firstenberg’s public art installation "In America: How could this happen…" memorialized the number of people in the United States who lost their lives to the Corona virus pandemic as of November of 2020. The work (taking up 4 acres of the Washington, DC Armory grounds) represented the magnitude of the loss and also humanized the individual experience. At the time, more than 250,000 people were represented through individual white flags, that together provided a visualization of the pandemic sweeping across the country.
- Description
- White plastic flag with metal pole from the "In America: How could this happen..." installation (11/2020). The flag is personalized: “Gene P. Mater / An ardent defender of the free Press. You are missed terribly Dad [heart] Grampy / Nov 27, 1926 -- Sept. 20, 2020”
- As COVID-19 deaths spiked in 2020, Suzanne Firstenberg’s public art installation "In America: How could this happen…" memorialized the number of people in the United States who lost their lives to the Corona virus pandemic as of November of 2020. The work (taking up 4 acres of the Washington, DC Armory grounds) represented the magnitude of the loss and also humanized the individual experience. At the time, more than 250,000 people were represented through individual white flags, that together provided a visualization of the pandemic sweeping across the country.
- Gene Mater (Nov. 27, 1926 – September 20, 2020) had a long career in print and broadcast media. He worked for several newspapers, CBS television news, Radio Free Europe, and the Newseum. He was a strong advocate of First Amendment rights.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- 2020
- ID Number
- 2021.0014.02
- accession number
- 2021.0014
- catalog number
- 2021.0014.02
- Object Name
- commorative flag
- commemorative flag
- flag
- Physical Description
- plastic; tyvek; metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 38 cm x 12.5 cm; 14 31/32 in x 4 29/32 in
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: General History
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_2001479
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng4bdd3a399-9a33-0597-e053-15f76fa0cbca
