Radical Hospitality will draw upon artifacts, photographs, banners and posters, children's art and video to reveal the story of how ordinary people pitched in to provide comfort, support and amenities to the rescue and recovery workers at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center. Organized geographically, the exhibition starts in midtown Manhattan with the supply distribution centers hurriedly created at the Jacob Javits Center and the piers along the Hudson River, then travels downtown on West Street along the Hero Highway to Point Thank You at Christopher Street, where well-wishers cheered and held up hand-lettered and decorated signs expressing their appreciation as rescue vehicles traveled to and from the site. It then goes to Nino's Restaurant on Canal Street, which opened its doors around the clock and supplied the recovery workers with food, drink, and a place to unwind from their grueling task, to St. Paul's Chapel, a spiritual and physical haven for the workers, to Ground Zero and the ceremonies that marked the end of the recovery and clean-up operations.

A group of approximately twenty paintings and two small sculptures offer visitors a chronological journey through highlights of the New-York Historical Society's rich collection of New York views, including historical images of the metropolis and richly allusive images of its inhabitants and their lives. The installation includes a selection of city views, beginning and ending with two monumental cityscapes, A Southeast Prospect of the City of New York from ca. 1756-1761 and Jacquette’s From World Trade Center, 1998. It features portraits of political and cultural figures such as DeWitt Clinton, who oversaw the development of the Erie Canal, and Katharine Cornell, the first lady of the American theater in the 1920s and 1930s. It also illuminates the everyday lives of city dwellers through such works as Thain’s Italian Block Party, 1922, and Blauvelt’s images of New Yorkers at work in the 1850s.

Chelsea Jeans, a retail store turned September 11th artifact and shrine, closed forever on October 26, 2002. Owner David Cohen entrusted the New-York Historical Society with preserving the Chelsea Jeans Memorial, as the 50 square feet of retail space became known to the thousands who filed past the glass-encased time capsule, as a place of pilgrimage for those visiting Ground Zero. A spontaneous memorial to all victims of the World Trade Center tragedy and a symbol of the still-unfolding aftermath of the terrorist attack, the Chelsea Jeans Memorial will serve as the focal point of this exhibition.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of September 11, the New-York Historical Society presents a special exhibition, Remembering 9/11.