Ground zero the pit

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A shadow box with gold-colored frame depicting the cleanup of the World Trade Center "Ground Zero" site in New York City. The shadowbox diorama was created by Elizabeth "Queen Ann" Burnett, an operating engineer at the site, as part of her therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. A large piece of glass is suspended over the scene, and the interior walls of the shadow box are covered in images from Ground Zero depicting surrounding buildings and piles of debris. The diorama poses miniature replicas of heavy machinery as they move and haul debris beneath a large fragment of glass suspended at top center. At left is the darkened facade of one of the World Trade Center buildings, with twisted metal spires rising from the rubble. At center, a demolition excavator with extended orange boom holds a piece of debris aloft. At right, a yellow loader deposits debris into a red dump truck.

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