Messenger Bag, Recovered
- Description
- Recovered crossbody messenger bag with the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) logo embroidered on the front as well as "Guy Tozzoli | President | WTCA." The bag is dusty and discolored.
- Historical Notes
- Salvaged from the World Trade Center debris and sent to the Fresh Kills Landfill for forensic inspection, this soiled bag likely originated from the 77th floor of the North Tower, where the World Trade Center Association (WTCA) was headquartered. It bears the conspicuous name of the WTCA’s president, Guy Tozzoli (1922-2013). For years, Tozzoli had served as director of the World Trade Department at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, where he performed multiple roles in planning, promoting, and managing the epic project of creating the 16-acre World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. After retiring from his Port Authority post in 1987, he remained a familiar presence in the buildings as full-time president of the World Trade Centers Association. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Tozzoli was driving to work for a meeting in the North Tower but was stalled in heavy commuting traffic on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel entrance. From there, he watched the unfolding terrorist attacks and collapse of the Twin Towers.
Curator's Comment
Headquartered in New York City, the World Trade Center Association was founded in 1961 as a not-for-profit, non-political umbrella organization with the mission of facilitating international trade and commerce within and between the regions of its group members in approximately 100 countries. After the World Trade Center was constructed, the organization moved into its North Tower office space on floor 77, its tenancy complementing the Port Authority’s aspiration for the new skyscrapers to serve as a modern, vertical “port” that would promote peace and stability through global trade.
The bag is part of an assortment of objects reserved for museum preservation by authorities managing the Fresh Kills recovery and sorting operations in 2001-2002. Released into the custody of the New-York Historical Society, whose representatives had advocated for and participated in this “History Responds” campaign, the bag was part of a group of over 600 recovered World Trade Center items transferred to the 9/11 Memorial Museum's permanent collection in 2019.
The bag is part of an assortment of objects reserved for museum preservation by authorities managing the Fresh Kills recovery and sorting operations in 2001-2002. Released into the custody of the New-York Historical Society, whose representatives had advocated for and participated in this “History Responds” campaign, the bag was part of a group of over 600 recovered World Trade Center items transferred to the 9/11 Memorial Museum's permanent collection in 2019.
- Accession Number: C.2019.139.88
- Dimensions: 14" X 17" X 4 1/4"
- Dimensions (Metric): 35.56 cm X 43.18 cm X 10.16 cm
- Source: The New York Historical (NYH)
- Credit Line: Transferred from the New-York Historical Society
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ)Recovered PropertyWorld Trade Center: Original Construction
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