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The Battalion Page 3A -Thursday, September 5, 2002
F A modern-day shrine
Texas A&M students, staff and faculty work to preserve memories of Bonfire
By Michael Whitlow
THE BATTALION
For two years. Dr. Sylvia Grider, an associate professor of
anthropology, has been working with the University to preserve
memorabilia from the Bonfire memorial site for future Aggies.
Grider said, “The Saturday night after the collapse I was at
Sweet Eugene’s when several of my graduate students
approached me.
"They told me something incredible was happening at the site.
When we arrived shortly after midnight, the perimeter fence had
already been constructed and begun to be covered with flowers.
In less than a day, it had become a pilgrimage site, with people
from across the state coming to leave items at the fence and pay
respects to the fallen.”
Spontaneous devotion to a site of tragedy is not unique, she
said. It is a world-wide phenomenon she has been studying for
over a decade. The phenomenon, which she refers to as a sponta
neous shrine, seems embedded in human behavior.
Grider has studied many shrines at such places as
Columbine High School, the site of the federal building
bombed in Oklahoma City, and in London following the
death of Princess Diana. Grider was personally consulted
by officials when such a shrine began being constructed at
Ground Zero in New York City last September.
"After 9/11 the media has wanted to use the term
‘makeshift memorial,’" Grider said. "I don’t like that term
because when you look at these sites, you can see that
people are very careful of what they do and what they put
there.”
Grider, student leaders, and University officials quick
ly mobilized to protect the items left at the Bonfire shrine.
"There was a campus-wide feeling this would have to
be preserved." Grider said. "By the time I met with stu
dent leaders many had already been out to the fence col
lecting items. We didn’t have time to worry about where
the items would be stored or what would eventually be
done with them, we had to get to work.”
Dr. Wynn Rosser, assistant vice president of Student
Affairs, agreed with Grider that the shrine had incredible
emotional significance to Aggies, as well as incredible
significance to the discipline of anthropology.
"This is the same kind of behavior that eventually led
to the Egyptian tombs," Rosser said. “We knew that future
Aggies would want to know about this and see these
items, but also that the event itself would be studied by future
anthropologists to better understand people’s reactions to tragic
events.”
The Student Government, Traditions Council, the Physical
Plant. Motor Pool and Purchasing and Surplus coordinated efforts
the week after the collapse in order to preserve the artifacts of the
memorial.
Each section of the fence was numbered and each item was
uniquely labeled according to its location on the fence.
“We could reconstruct the entire fence if we had to,” Grider
said. “We were that thorough in taking photographs and number
ing everything. We know where every item in the collection was.”
The process of gathering the artifacts met w ith some difficulties.
"Flowers and paper aren’t meant to be left outside for a
month,” Grider said. "There was no way to keep the fiowers, so
we gathered them in about 150 trash bags, and the Physical Plant
composted them. The compost has been saved for use by the uni
versity in planting flowers or trees possibly at the memorial site.”
The paper products also presented a unique challenge.
“We had banners, posters, notes, letters, even Bibles that after
days of exposure had become completely sodden,” Grider said.
"We had to work fast to prevent mildew and disintegration, but
these objects were very fragile. So, we froze them in the library’s
archival freezer until the archivist in the Cushing Library could
work to slowly dry them out one by one and preserve them.”
Bonfire grodes, teddy bears and 12th Man towels were water
logged and stained. With the expertise of the Department of
Anthropology’s nautical archaeology specialists, the objects were
safely preserved.
Grider said a corner, featuring a twelve-foot cross and twelve
individual crosses for the fallen Aggies was left until December
20th.
"Members of the community requested that we leave part of
the shrine intact for a while because people were still visiting the
site,” Grider said. "We also wanted to leave part of the shrine
intact until after graduation.”
"We’ve stabilized all of the artifacts now and are keep
ing them in environmentally controlled conditions”
Grider said. “We had to refine all our methods to work
with this assemblage, and speed was vital, but now all the
artifacts have been preserved indefinitely.
“Each artifact has been digitally photographed and cat
aloged. We just finished the work this past semester.”
With the collection complete, the Department of
Anthropology, University officials, and student leaders
have been developing a long-term plan for the “Bonfire
Memorabilia Collection,” as it’s been dubbed.
"We’re hoping to do some sort of exhibit this fall,”
Rosser said. "Due to the nature of the artifacts, it will
most likely be a photographical exhibit, with documents
explaining the history of Bonfire and the nature and sig
nificance of spontaneous shrines.”
Beyond this, no final decision has been reached regard
ing the ultimate fate of the collection, although there has
been talk of linking it to the Bonfire Memorial.
"We realize the emotional link between the collection
and the memorial," Rosser said. “We’d like for there to be
a physical link as well.”
Grider said an online version of the collection’s digital
catalog may be created. For now, the Aggie family can
rest assured that the artifacts from the Bonfire shrine will
be safe for generations of future Aggies.
Paying his respects
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Junior computer engineering major, Sloan memorial site at the Bonfire Memorial exhibit on
Williams, looks at a scale model of a proposed Tuesday.
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