Alice Greenwald, Director of the 9/11 Memorial Museum, will speak in the Community Room of the Princeton Public Library on Thursday, March 14th, 2013, at 7:00 pm. The talk,"Memory and Meaning: Building a Vision for a Museum at Ground Zero," will focus on the challenges of commemorating the attacks of September 11th and outline theprocess of planning the museum.

The National September 11 Memorial Museum will serve as the country's principal institution for examining the implications of the events of 9/11, documenting the impact of those events and exploring the continuing significance of September 11, 2001. Providing visitors with access to the historic assets preserved at the World Trade Center site, the Museum will display both the monumental artifacts associated with the events of 9/11 and focus on the human dimension of history by narrating the personal stories behind these events.

Also serving as Executive Vice President for Programs at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, Ms. Greenwald previously servedas Associate Museum Director for Museum Programs for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Greenwald has also served as Executive Director of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia; Acting Director, Curator and Assistant Curator of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum in Los Angeles; and Curatorial Assistant at the Maurice Spertus Museum in Judaica, Chicago.

The event is co-sponsored by the Public History Initiative (Department of History, Princeton University), the Princeton Public Library, the Historical Society of Princeton, and Princeton University's Program in American Studies. Richard Anderson, a graduate history student at Princeton University and coordinator of the Public History Initiative, noted that the attacks of September 11th were felt on both the national and local level, with twenty-seven Mercer County residents among the victims. "The Public History Initiative wanted to hold a history-related event that would be meaningful to the entire Princeton community, not just to scholars," he said. "Ms. Greenwald's talk is a natural fit because the events of 9/11 had an enormous impact on Mercer County."

The event is free and open to the public, but space will be limited. Reservations are not required.

The Princeton Public Library is located at 65 Witherspoon Street, at the corner of Witherspoon and Wiggins Streets, in Princeton Borough. Library parking is available in the Municipal Garage at Spring Street, located adjacent to the library. For directions, please visit www.princetonlibrary.org.