My name is Michael Ragsdale, from Maspeth, NY, in Queens, and I am writing to you to let you know I have decided to begin public and private speaking about my seven year 9/11 aftermath collection. And I would like you to know if the already historic collection I have in my possession and my passion to share it with the world qualifies me for inclusion in your agency.

Considering that in New York City there remains a huge interest in learning more about what happened "the day of" and "in the aftermath of" the September 11 attacks - the Tribute WTC Visitor Center and 9/11 Memorial Preview site have drawn over one million visitors apiece - I offer you the following.

About my collection:

Beginning the morning of September 11, 2001, I embarked upon a unique event-specific paper ephemera and autograph collecting effort - zeroing in on New York City area occasions I would be working at (for Columbia University, C-SPAN and others) or attending on my own - events which I knew were going to be created and held throughout the tri-state area to address a myriad of approaching 9/11-related issues (recovery, security, war, costs, health, peace, civil liberties, media coverage, etc.).

The result:

I concluded it after seven years;

I was present at over 200 New York City area newsworthy events;

At them I secured over 3,000 pieces of ephemera (event programs, fliers, cards, brochures, press releases, copies of speeches and more) and the signatures of around 500 event participants - individuals from all over the U.S., world and New York City (Bill Bennett, Judith Miller, Gore Vidal, Caleb Carr, Ahmed Rashid, Lauren Manning, Lee Ielpi, Marcel Marceau, Ron Silver, Howard Zinn, Ted Koppel, Seymour Hersh, Joe Wilson, Chris Hedges, Father Daniel Berrigan, Dinesh D'Souza, Bela Fleck, Charlie Rangel, Chris Shays, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Graham, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, KRS One, Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Edward Albee, Bernhard-Henri Levy, Harry Belafonte, Nurah W. Ammat’ullah and hundreds of others).

I obtained over 30 press kits from organizations like NYC Recovers, Tribute WTC Visitor Center, the 9/11 Commission, Americans for Victory over Terrorism, International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed By The Bush Administration, Not In Our Name, the West Point Military Academy and others;

Some of the non-autographed ephemera I gathered came from occasions which featured President George W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, Iraq president Jalal Talabani, Afganistan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and others.

About my talk:

Titled, “Recalling the Aftermath of 9/11: A New York City Paper Ephemera and Autograph Collector’s Journey,” in it I intend to take my audience back to one of the most important periods of time in the history of NYC. With anecdotes and slides (and in chronological order) I will reveal over 160 paper materials and autographs I collected from September 11, 2001 until September 2004 - all to show my journey and those who got involved in NYC after the attacks. (To expose seven years of materials I would need much more time or a second talk.)

Images shown will include those I collected when:

World leaders came together at the United Nations World Assembly meeting addressing international terrorism on Oct 1-4, 2001;

Vice President Richard Cheney came out of hiding and spoke for the very first time in public - on October 18th at The Fifty Sixth Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. Ronan Tynan started it off by singing Isle of Hope Isle of Tears and God Bless America;

Thousands of tri-state area residents and dozens of activists participated in the huge Not In Our Name/Pledge of Resistance anti war rally in Central Park on October 6, 2002;

WTC burn victim and Cantor Fitzgerald employee Lauren Manning told her moving story of courage and survival at a Columbia University Occupational Therapy Graduation on May 21, 2003;

Ill Ground Zero workers and others testified at a National Security, Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee-sponsored meeting titled, “Emerging Threats and International Relations Meeting Assessing September 11th Health Effects: What Should Be Done?” on October 28, 2003, at Mount Sinai Medical Center;

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NY Governor George Pataki, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and others re-opened the Statue of Liberty on August 4, 2004.

Eve Ensler, Sir Salmon Rushdie, Walter Dean Myers, Francine Prose, Paul Auster and others came together on August 4, 2004 at The Great Hall at Cooper Union to address the Iraq war - at a PEN American Center-sponsored program titled, “State of Emergency: Unconventional Readings."

And many more.

You can view nearly 100 images from the collection online at:

[http://www.collectorsquest.com/collection/2152/in-the-aftermath-of-9-11-a-new-york-city-paper-ephemera-and-autograph-collectors-journey]()

About me:

I have been an in-person New York City area event-specific paper ephemera and autograph collector since 1997, something I was doing for fun up until the attacks on 9/11, and at most of my videotaping assignments. But that world-changing day I decided to embark upon two separate aftermath-related collecting efforts - the one I am writing to you about, and a fourteen month collection I actually sold to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in January, and where my name will be associated with it for perpetuity.

I am also an occasional event videographer, laid off from my prior 13 years of fulltime work for Columbia University in June 2009 - still seeking more video work.

Current archives of mine include:

C-SPAN/BookTV autograph collection (1997-present);

Columbia University Medical Center event-related autograph collection (1997-2009);

Dr. Mehmet Oz autograph collection (2002-2009);

9/11 Aftermath paper ephemera and autograph collection (September 2001 – September 2008).

My Prior Appearances include:

Presentation of fourteen month 9/11 aftermath collection, sponsored by P&S Club (medical students) at Columbia University Medical Center, February 27, 2006;

Collector’s Night participant, sponsored by the City Reliquary, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, April 9, 2006;

9/11: We Remember – A Memorial Tribute speaker and exhibitor, sponsored by the Columbia University Center for Bioethics, September 11, 2006;

Informal presentations at the HQ of the former WTC Memorial Foundation, Tribute WTC Visitor Center and the first WTC Documentation Symposium (2006, 2007);

Presentation at Benefit/Show For Ailing 9/11 First Responders, sponsored by Now or Never, The Madison, September 12, 2008;

Informal presentations at the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Fair - The Shadow Show, Altman Building, April 10-11, 2010;

Informal presentations at the Brooklyn Peace Fair, Brooklyn College, May 15, 2010;

Future commitments so far are at a Center On Terrorism-sponsored seminar at John Jay College and at the Bayside Historical Society next month.

I am also being considered as a featured speaker in the next series of  “9/11, Today and Tomorrow” public programs at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site.

Prior Media Coverage (mostly because of the self-marketing of my 14 month collection now at the 9/11 Museum):

Associated Press, Greenwich Time(CT), New York Times, Queens Chronicle, Times Ledger (Ridgewood, Queens), Bloomberg.net, wcbsradio880.com, Antiques & the Arts Weekly, Autograph magazine, Planet Collector magazine, @John Jay (John Jay College), The Record (Columbia University), In Vivo (Columbia University Medical Center), Russia Channel One, ARD German TV, Voice of America, The Memo Blog (National September 11 Memorial & Museum), YouTube (Ephemera Society of America).

From an amateur autograph collector who did some unique collecting beginning September 11, 2001 and now intends to share it with the world, I thank you for your time.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Michael Ragsdale

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