Object Details
Description (Brief)
White flag with metal pole and writing in black marker. blue tag attached to metal pole (C4 1)
Obverse Text: Honoring all the FILIPINO-AMERICAN NURSES, DOCTORS & Health workers. <3 (heart) / Nov. 2020
As COVID-19 deaths spiked in 2020, Suzanne Firstenberg’s public art installation "In America: How could this happen…" memorialized the number of people in the United States who lost their lives to the Corona virus pandemic as of November of 2020. The work (taking up 4 acres of the Washington, DC Armory grounds) represented the magnitude of the loss and also humanized the individual experience. At the time, more than 250,000 people were represented through individual white flags, that together provided a visualization of the pandemic sweeping across the country.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2020
ID Number
2021.0014.03
catalog number
2021.0014.03
accession number
2021.0014
Object Name
commemorative flag
flag
Physical Description
plastic; tyvek; metal (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 38 cm x 12.5 cm; 14 31/32 in x 4 29/32 in
See more items in
Work and Industry: General History
Data Source
National Museum of American History
associated subject
Infectious diseases
COVID-19 (Disease)
Public Health
2019-nCoV disease
Disease prevention
2019 novel coronavirus disease
related event
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_2001480