Hard Hat
- Description
- Plastic bump-style hard hat with cap-style brim and interior ratchet suspension. The hard hat is white with an American flag sticker on the front. On the sides is handwritten: "Emergency Lighting | Team | Local 52." On the right side of the hard hat is a taped newspaper clipping depicting a photograph of Daniel Francis McGinley. On the back of the hard hat is the Local 52 sticker. The hard hat is scuffed and dirty.
- Historical Notes
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, native Daniel McGinley lived in Ridgewood, New Jersey, with his wife, Peggy, and their five children. Proud of his Irish Catholic heritage, Daniel had once considered becoming a priest and was known to sing “Danny Boy” at parties. On September 11, Daniel was on the South Tower’s 89th floor at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, where he was a senior vice president. He was 40 years old.
Curator's Comment
This hard hat belonged to Jerry DeTita, a member of the same hockey league as 9/11 victim Daniel McGinley. The two men had played a game together on Monday evening, September 10, 2001. DeTita, a Leadman and set dresser in the film and television industry, is affiliated with Local 52, a union representing Motion Picture Studio Mechanics. He was working a film shoot on 9/11 and began to hear rumors that his teammate Daniel may have been at work in the stricken building. On the Monday after the attacks, Jerry went to the league’s hockey game, where it was confirmed that Daniel was missing. The next day, he gathered some colleagues and began organizing lighting and trucks for FEMA. DeTita spent the next five days at Ground Zero searching for Daniel. He taped Daniel’s photograph (an image was originally published in New Jersey’s Bergen Record) to his hard hat.
- Accession Number: C.2025.8.1
- Dimensions: unavailable
- Source: Peggy McGinley
- Credit Line: Gift of Peggy McGinley
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