"IN AMERICA How Could This Happen...," flag
date: label: date made
content: 2020
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: one (1) flag
label: Description (Brief)
content: Washington, D.C., 2020
label: Description (Brief)
content: Description: white flag with metal pole and writing in black marker. red tag attached to metal pole (C3-12)
label: Description (Brief)
content: 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
label: Description (Brief)
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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”
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: associated subject
content: Infectious diseases
label: associated subject
content: COVID-19 (Disease)
label: associated subject
content: Public Health
label: associated subject
content: 2019-nCoV disease
label: associated subject
content: Disease prevention
label: associated subject
content: 2019 novel coronavirus disease
label: related event
content: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: General History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0014.02
label: accession number
content: 2021.0014
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0014.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: commorative flag
label: Object Name
content: commemorative flag
label: Object Name
content: flag
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic; tyvek; metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 38 cm x 12.5 cm; 14 31/32 in x 4 29/32 in