The Delicate Task of Memorializing the Boston Marathon Attacks

The most emblematic monuments to the victims of terrorist bombings and mass shootings may be the city-storage rooms that house, in carefully labelled folders and acid-free boxes, the posters, letters, stuffed animals, and other items that people place in makeshift memorials at sites of violence. The city of Boston, which commemorated the fourth anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing on Saturday, oversees an archive of thousands of cards, banners, and other paper and cloth materials left at Copley Square after five people were killed and more than two hundred wounded in the attacks; it stores larger items outside the city, including thousands of pairs of pristine running shoes, purchased specifically for the temporary memorial. Few people have asked to see the items in person, a city archivist told me, maybe because the collection is digitized and posted online.

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