NIU preserving memorial items

In preparation for an exhibit marking one year since the Feb. 14 shooting, Annie Oelschlager, a staff member at the Regional History Center at Northern Illinois University, catalogs memorial artifacts from the aftermath of the shooting while working Feb. 5 at Founders Memorial Library on the NIU campus in DeKalb. (Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

Daily Chronicle: We Remember

NIU memorial events

In a lab on the lower level of Founders Memorial Library in DeKalb, a staffer methodically sorts small white teddy bears and heart-shaped balloons into clear plastic bags. On a table are crates of smoke-stained jars and burned-out candles yet to be inventoried. One bag contains a single, worn-out silver shoe. A large flat box holds tiny origami cranes that, a year ago, hung from campus trees.

A year after a gunman opened fire in a Northern Illinois University classroom, killing five and then himself, the task of cataloging and preserving the artifacts that marked a tragedy will take staff at the university’s Regional History Center at least six more months, director Cindy Ditzler said. More than 600 items were left at spontaneous memorials that sprang up around campus in the wake of Feb. 14, 2008. Ditzler can’t even guess the number of cards and e-mails received for the collection.

“Everything gets inventoried, wrapped properly and put in appropriate places,” Ditzler said.

On a frosty Saturday morning in late March, history center staff, campus grounds crews and carpenters collected the memorials. Items that could get moldy were wrapped in plastic and frozen. Everything else was spread on blotter paper to dry. Nothing was washed, taken apart or tampered with, Ditzler said.

“The individual crosses had balloons, flowers, sunglasses, all kinds of stuff left on them,” she said. “We’re very grateful to the student workers who helped us. We didn’t know how they would react, they didn’t know how they would react, but they stepped up to the plate big-time. ... We didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be until we started.”

Kay Shelton, a program administrative assistant with University Libraries, was tasked with collecting electronic communications for the archives. She searched the Internet, printing out blog entries, photos and poetry. University faculty and staff printed out e-mails they received and donated them.

“We had people coming in every day with what they would like to donate to the archives,” Ditzler said. “I expect we’ll get some more things after the anniversary. People have begun to heal and are maybe ready to move forward, and they know their things will be safe here.”

The work of cataloging the artifacts has been slow, partly because it’s not a job staffers can work on for eight hours at a time, Ditzler said. And unlike departments that might have found a measure of healing in the day-to-day tasks of a new school year, history center staff deal with daily, physical reminders of the tragedy.

“It is an emotional project, and we need to take time away from it,” she said. “It has been a little more difficult for us to heal and move on. I think we’re getting to a point of comfort level, though. And because we know the importance of our job, I think that’s helped us deal with it as well.”