Washington (CNN) -- National Museum of American History Curator Peter Liebhold describes the day several years ago he spent going through shipping containers filled with debris from United Airlines Flight 93 as "overpowering," even though more than a year had passed since September 11, 2001, when the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. "Going through the debris of an airplane was certainly an experience that I've never had before," said Liebhold, one of three curators from that museum who focused on gathering 9/11 artifacts full time. A special exhibition commemorating 9/11 with the results of their work will open at the museum on Saturday. They were granted access to the materials from Flight 93 after the FBI had finished analyzing them as crime-scene evidence. "The material was stored in ocean-shipping containers and we opened them up -- I guess we weren't really prepared for how small the bits would be," according to Liebhold. "It smelled of jet fuel, of moldy cloth and paper and just sort of mysterious odors that were -- I guess in all honesty -- plain scary," he said. Liebhold and his fellow curators by this time had an idea of what the items they would seek as they dug through the plane debris. "One of the big stories on Flight 93 was that unlike the other flights (hijacked on 9/11), it was delayed in taking off and the hijacking happened a little bit later," the curator said. "The passengers knew what their fate was going to be through cell-phone communication. People had talked to people on the ground. So finding a cell phone was something we really sought, to tell that story of how people became informed and what helped motivate them to action." They found a GTE phone that has become part of the Washington museum's permanent exhibit on 9-11. The curators also collected a gauge from the flight panel of United Flight 93, as control of the plane itself was part of the story. They also tried to find items that would represent the people who were on the plane, such as seat belts that had been torn in the crash. And, they found a part of an American flag. "Every United Airlines plane over the exit door has a small American flag painted into the fuselage and we found the red-and-white stripes of the flag," Liebhold said. "For me, one of the strongest icons is one of the simplest and smallest. And that's the little orange call button that I never really paid attention to," he said. "There was this small little orange button and it's chipped and it's scratched but it's a picture of a person and in a sense, it's asking for help." The curators were granted a single day to go through the Flight 93 containers. At the end of the day, they threw away the clothes they had been wearing during their search, as the clothes smelled like that strange odor from the container. Liebhold said that during the height of their collecting, he and his colleagues also communicated with family members and others affected by the attacks, to ask for other items related to September 11. But, they always worked through an intermediary so that those affected would be comfortable turning down their requests and would not have to say no face to face. "It's difficult to know where the boundary between history and current event is, and when you are collecting something that is a current event, you're emotionally tied to it and it's difficult to have any kind of distance to understand it," Liebhold said. "But, so much of it is parting -- if you don't act fairly quickly, it could easily be gone forever." More than 50 9/11 artifacts collected by curators from the American History Museum will be on display in a special exhibition called "September 11: Remembrance and Reflections." The items, collected from New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, will be on display starting Saturday at the museum on tables, not behind glass, to give visitors a close-up, intimate view through September 11, 2011.
A special museum exhibition commemorating 9/11 opens in Washington .
The exhibit includes material from United Flight 93, which crashed after hijacking .
Going through debris from the airliner was "overpowering," a museum curator says .
Washington (CNN) -- National Museum of American History Curator Peter Liebhold describes the day several years ago he spent going through shipping containers filled with debris from United Airlines Flight 93 as "overpowering," even though more than a year had passed since September 11, 2001, when the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. "Going through the debris of an airplane was certainly an experience that I've never had before," said Liebhold, one of three curators from that museum who focused on gathering 9/11 artifacts full time. A special exhibition commemorating 9/11 with the results of their work will open at the museum on Saturday. They were granted access to the materials from Flight 93 after the FBI had finished analyzing them as crime-scene evidence. "The material was stored in ocean-shipping containers and we opened them up -- I guess we weren't really prepared for how small the bits would be," according to Liebhold. "It smelled of jet fuel, of moldy cloth and paper and just sort of mysterious odors that were -- I guess in all honesty -- plain scary," he said. Liebhold and his fellow curators by this time had an idea of what the items they would seek as they dug through the plane debris. "One of the big stories on Flight 93 was that unlike the other flights (hijacked on 9/11), it was delayed in taking off and the hijacking happened a little bit later," the curator said. "The passengers knew what their fate was going to be through cell-phone communication. People had talked to people on the ground. So finding a cell phone was something we really sought, to tell that story of how people became informed and what helped motivate them to action." They found a GTE phone that has become part of the Washington museum's permanent exhibit on 9-11. The curators also collected a gauge from the flight panel of United Flight 93, as control of the plane itself was part of the story. They also tried to find items that would represent the people who were on the plane, such as seat belts that had been torn in the crash. And, they found a part of an American flag. "Every United Airlines plane over the exit door has a small American flag painted into the fuselage and we found the red-and-white stripes of the flag," Liebhold said. "For me, one of the strongest icons is one of the simplest and smallest. And that's the little orange call button that I never really paid attention to," he said. "There was this small little orange button and it's chipped and it's scratched but it's a picture of a person and in a sense, it's asking for help." The curators were granted a single day to go through the Flight 93 containers. At the end of the day, they threw away the clothes they had been wearing during their search, as the clothes smelled like that strange odor from the container. Liebhold said that during the height of their collecting, he and his colleagues also communicated with family members and others affected by the attacks, to ask for other items related to September 11. But, they always worked through an intermediary so that those affected would be comfortable turning down their requests and would not have to say no face to face. "It's difficult to know where the boundary between history and current event is, and when you are collecting something that is a current event, you're emotionally tied to it and it's difficult to have any kind of distance to understand it," Liebhold said. "But, so much of it is parting -- if you don't act fairly quickly, it could easily be gone forever." More than 50 9/11 artifacts collected by curators from the American History Museum will be on display in a special exhibition called "September 11: Remembrance and Reflections." The items, collected from New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, will be on display starting Saturday at the museum on tables, not behind glass, to give visitors a close-up, intimate view through September 11, 2011.
containers filled with debris from United Shanksville, Pennsylvania. "Going through the gathering 9/11 artifacts full time. A special exhibition commemorating 9/11 with the results of them as crime-scene evidence. "The material was United Flight 93, as control of the plane itself