Suffolk County Historical Society Premieres 9/11 Exhibit

The Suffolk County Historical Society opened its 9/11 Memorial Exhibition on Friday evening, which featured artists depicting their visions of the tragedy that struck America 10 years ago.

The exhibit is a collaboration with the Riverhead Free Library, which created a 30-minute video of local people speaking about their experiences and memories of 9/11.

Director Kathy Curran, who took over the position in midsummer, said the event had been in the planning stages for months.

“Before I became director, in June, I was talking about this exhibit," Curran said. "It was just too important a story not to do.”

The exhibit features artwork from local artists in attendance as well.

Sag Harbor’s Mare Dianora had put together a slice of life from the days surrounding the attacks using a book of emails she had received and sent. She and her husband had been visiting her parents in New Jersey the day before. They were leaving late and turned aside offers to stay the night. One of her emails notes that when passing through New York on their way to Long Island, “we got a last glimpse of the towers 8 hours before they fell.”

Kevin O’Connell of Rocky Point had many photographs of a time long before 9/11, when the Twin Towers were still being constructed.

“I got out of Vietnam in 1968 and took a job with the Port Authority," he said. "During my lunch hour I photographed the towers being built.” 

His work spans four years, and could not have made it into this exhibition, he said, without the help of Ridge resident Stu McCullum, a disabled artist with Parkinson’s disease who not only developed the old prints but also matted and framed them.

J. Lee Elsbree of Center Moriches has two paintings in the show: the head of the Statue of Liberty backdropped by the American flag and “9/11 Firefighter,” a watercolor whose muted tones gave an appropriate mournful aspect to the piece.

Leonardo Liguori, whose “Ich Bin Ein America,” a rippled American flag of steel with LED lights for stars, described the cutting and rolling process used to create his work, but added the most difficult part was the stars.

“I had to cut out a hole for each one, and wire them from behind the flag,” Liguori said.

One of the artists not present was David T. Haussler, who had created a metal sculpture in 2002 of the towers in flames that is now displayed at the exhibit.

Two men present who were not artists had their own contributions to offer.

Roy Gross of the Suffolk County SPCA, talked about the mobile animal hospital that the SPCA brought to Ground Zero to care for the rescue dogs and their handlers.

“For two months, 24/7, we gave a thousand treatments to 350 dogs. [We] rehydrated them, gave them booties to protect their feet and cleaned them of the toxic debris,” he said.

Gross’ own retriever, Cody, was one of the rescue dogs.

The exhibit will run through Oct. 1. and will also include a talk on 9/11 at the Society on Sept 14 by Paul Thumser, an air traffic controller supervisor.