New online exhibit collects tributes
The Orange County Regional History Center has opened an online portal to view hundreds of intimate tributes to the 49 victims of the attack.
The Orange County Regional History Center opened an online portal Monday to hundreds of intimate tributes that mourn and celebrate the 49 people killed in the Pulse massacre a year ago.
The artifacts — from angel wings to an Ikea couch covered with hand-written messages — blanketed the campuses of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando Regional Medical Center, Lake Eola Park and the LGBTQ nightclub for weeks after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
Not intended to be museum pieces, the tributes were preserved because they speak loudly and eloquently about love and loss in Orlando, said Michael Perkins, manager of the History Center.
Many items weathered blistering heat, summer deluges of rain and wax drippings from candles which had been placed beside or on top of them.
More than 5,000 artifacts were gathered by the center’s archival staff who cleaned the soiled tributes. About 600 have been photographed by county archivist Frank Weber and the images uploaded to the gallery at www.One OrlandoCollection.com.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said the digital collection tells a compelling true story about love overcoming the evil of an ISISinspired gunman.
“The history books will always, always remember that 49 people were murdered in a nightclub here in Orlando. … That part of history, that’s told. That’s etched in stone,” Jacobs said after a preview of the online gallery.
“But the part of history that we want to make sure gets told is this community’s response,” she said. “Because if all the world is left with is the story of hate and violence, if that’s the legacy [of Pulse], then hate and violence wins. In reality, that’s not what happened here.”
Jacobs said Orlando and the world united around the LGBTQ and the Latino communities, both hit hard in the attack of the club on “Latin Night.”
“Our story needs to be told again and again and again,” she said.
While skilled artists crafted some tributes in stunning, intricate detail with careful strokes, others simply scrawled sincere messages on rocks, pieces of cardboard or luggage tags.
“Tiny notes of love,” said Weber, the archivist. “Anything and everything you can write on and some things you wouldn’t ordinarily write on were written on.”
Perkins said the tributes include paintings, pictures and poems, teddy bears, rainbow flags, a set of prayer beads left by a woman who said she had no money to buy flowers, and the iconic 49 white crosses made by an Illinois carpenter decorated with eulogies written by family, friends and strangers.
It’s a collection that will keep growing in size and detail.
Perkins, who consulted with historians who preserved tributes to victims of the 9-11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing, appealed to the public for help in learning more about the individual memorials and tributes.
“We don’t know the story behind most of these,” he said.
The online gallery includes a feature allowing a web visitor to leave a comment about an image and connect with curators seeking details about its origin.
The History Center also hopes the public will submit social media postings from June 12, 2016, that reflect the reaction to Pulse — from grief to outrage to the determination that the tragedy would not define the community.
The online gallery, which can be navigated in English, Spanish and other languages, was designed with the world in mind, Orange County spokeswoman Carrie Proudfit said.
“This will reach across the globe,” she said.
Twenty-three of the 49 Pulse victims had roots in Puerto Rico, another’s family is tied to Venezuela. Others come from states other than Florida.
“We know there are families … who just aren’t going to make it here or who are going to make it here just one time,” Jacobs said. “This is the best we can do to communicate back [to them] that, ‘You know, we’re still with you here...even if you’re in Venezuela, even if you’re in Puerto Rico.’ ”
The mayor said some families may not unable to tour the History Center or participate in public one-year observances because their emotional wounds are too raw.
“Anytime they’re ready, this will be here,” Jacobs said.
Online visitors can search for all tributes left in the name of a Pulse victim, all artifacts left at a memorial site or by the kind of tribute, such as “all teddy bears.”
The launch of the online portal coincides with a fiveday Pulse exhibit at the History Center in downtown Orlando. Admission is free through Saturday.