The last vacancy on the photo wall at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum is filled. The placement concludes the almost 16-year project to memorialize the thousands killed as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Honoring And Remembering Antonio Dorsey Pratt
Antonio Dorsey Pratt’s portrait was hung on the wall on June 29th. Known by his friends as “Tony,” he was an employee of Cantor Fitzgerald Forte Food Service on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. His portrait was provided to the museum through Voices Center for Resilience, an organization dedicated to remember the victims of 9/11.
According to Jordan Freeman who contributed Antonio’s photograph, Tony was a “shining star” — a highly motivated, hardworking, caring, and compassionate person. When the photograph was taken, Jordan was Tony’s supervisor at the Institute for Community Living, where he was regarded by everyone he knew as exceptionally bright, engaging, and loving.
“Tony was a very friendly and caring person,” said Freeman. “There weren’t a lot of people who were able to get their lives back on track, but Tony was one that could and worked really hard to do that.”
Visit Antonio’s Living Memorial page here.
Last Photograph Presented To “In Memoriam” Exhibit
“This is a chapter in the sense that we were able to provide the last missing photograph for the exhibit,” said Mary Fetchet, director of Voices Center for Resilience. “For 16 years, Voices has dedicated our efforts to ensure that the memory of the nearly 3,000 victims who so tragically lost their lives is commemorated for future generations. It is my honor to provide Alice Greenwald with the photograph of Antonio Dorsey Pratt — the last missing photograph to complete the collection at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.”
Alice Greenwald, CEO of the memorial and museum, said Pratt’s photo marked the completion “of a process that began almost 16 years ago when we began work on just even imagining what the 9/11 Memorial & Museum would be and what it would contain.”
Pratt’s photo is blurry because “in order to focus on his beautiful face, a lot of work had to be done to zero in and enlarge and enlarge to the point where it could be appropriate for the scale of the installation,” Greenwald said. She said the image is still recognizable despite all the enhancements.
Background On The 9/11 Memorial & Museum
The memorial exhibition, “In Memoriam,” honors the 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001, from hijacked planes crashing in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
It also honors the six people killed in the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. Visitors enter a gallery where the portraits line all four walls. Rotating selections of personal artifacts and touchscreen tables allow visitors to discover additional information about each person. An inner chamber presents profiles of individual victims through photographs, biographical information, and audio remembrances provided by family members and friends.
Starting this month, the museum will be open Wednesday–Monday, adding a 6th day to the schedule. The memorial will be open daily until 8 p.m., offering an additional 28 hours of public access each week. Since it opened, there have been more than 18 million visitors to the museum and more than 53.4 million visitors to the memorial.
Here are other ways you can pay your respects at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum: