Look closely and you'll see the small photographs.
Near one wall, dozens of pieces of twisted metal and motor parts from an anonymous yellow Ryder truck are stacked neatly on shelves, each item wrapped in plastic and cardboard.Or a note.Such as the note from the daughter to her mother: "Mom, my wedding was great. I wish you could have been there."Like the fence, the chairs of the memorial also serve as repositories for those who visit."We have items from the fence, items from the chairs, items collected from the rescue and recovery, unclaimed personal possessions, cards and letters that came into the mayor's office and the governor's office and there are items such as quilts, banners and stuffed animals," she said.For 15 years, more than 70,000 items have been placed along the memorial's fence - and in the chairs - by those visitors who make the pilgrimage here."A lot of people wanted to help," she said. "They couldn't necessarily get in there to remove debris, so this was their way to help.""Initially, people left items in honor of the victims," Stiefmiller said. "They left items in honor of the victims' families, all the things that people feel when someone dies."But it's the items left on the fence and in the memorial's chairs that draw the most attention.Maybe a small Bible.A picture painted by thousands of trinkets and notes and photographs and flowers left along a fence or placed lovingly in a chair."People also leave photographs and notes," Stiefmiller said. "They are messages left for their loved ones.""I can't think about that without it bringing tears to my eyes," Stiefmiller said.Handmade banners encouraged rescue workers. T-shirts and ball caps reminded Oklahomans that their friends spanned the globe.And each of those items, Helen Stiefmiller said, is gathered, preserved and cataloged by the staff of the memorial. Stiefmiller, the museum's collection manager, said her job is to preserve a record of the event and its aftermath.Or the car keys.But the work never ends.And still, the items come. Each year, Stiefmiller and her staff collect thousands of items along the fence, then catalog and then store them. Some things, such as the metal rings of key chains, are discarded. Other items end up in traveling exhibits sponsored by the museum."It's part of our collecting policy," she said. "When we formed the museum, the survivors and family members and rescue workers - they were part of helping us decide how we were going to collect things. They wanted that to be a part of this institution."Those items, too, the museum seeks to preserve.The fence of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.At another chair, a visitor left a small, collapsible baby stroller."This is the evidence from the trial," Stiefmiller said. "Slowly, since about 2006, we've been collecting it.""What we're trying to do is have the artifacts that represent all the different layers of the story," she said. "How it affected the country, how it affected Oklahoma. The victims, the families, the rescuers; how our community came together to make this wonderful museum. We're trying to have a complete picture: how the city overcame this awful tragedy and moved forward in spite of it."Wedged into the diamond-shaped openings are flowers, and wreaths, and small children's toys and even license plates and pieces of clothing - gifts from strangers lovingly attached to the chain-link fence that runs parallel to Sixth Street in downtown Oklahoma City.But the items were left for other reasons, too.
A picture painted by thousands of trinkets and notes and photographs and flowers left along a fence or placed lovingly in a chair.
