In the days after the Feb. 13 shooting, spaces all around Michigan State University's campus became makeshift memorials as people gathered and brought flowers, signs and candles to share in the sadness of the tragedy.
But as classes resumed and students regained a sense of normalcy, it became clear that there needed to be a plan for what do with the thousands of objects left behind.
"Not long after, what I'll describe as my museum brain had to click on," said Mary Worrall, the director of collections at the MSU Museum.
Worrall and the rest of the museum team got to work so nothing would end up being destroyed by the elements.
"A lot of these materials were wet," said MSU Museum director Devon Akmon. "It was winter. It was cold, so we had to do a lot of preliminary work and just drying out and stabilizing the materials."
The museum has since catalogued more than 1,500 unique items like stuffed animals and handmade crocheted hearts.
Worrall said others brought signs with the phrase, “Spartan Strong.”
"You could see that people were grabbing what they probably had in their homes to express something," she said.
Akmon said for him, he’s been moved by the letters people left on campus.
We are Spartans. We're graduates. We're employees. We're part of this community, so this this has taken a toll on us as well.Devon Akmon, MSU Museum Director
"There are numbers of sealed letters which were very obviously private, and those have remained sealed to this day. We don't know what was expressed in those."
Because of how intense this work has been over the past year, Akmon notes his team has been taking as much time as they need to process materials.
"We have to be really mindful that it's really difficult to work with this stuff," he said.
"We are Spartans. We're graduates. We're employees. We're part of this community, so this this has taken a toll on us as well."
The impact of Feb. 13 was felt all over campus, including in spaces that might not typically be associated with an immediate response.
The MSU Herbarium, which serves as a library for preserved plant, fungi and algae samples, has focused on saving flowers from the memorials.
"They collected roses and tulips and carnations and alstroemerias, many different species of flowers from the MSU Union, the Spartan Statue, the Rock and Berkey Hall," said herbarium director Alan Prather.
While the herbarium is mostly dedicated to preserving scientific samples, Prather says there’s space for plants with cultural significance.
For those of us who are drawn to museum work, a lot of that is because we really have a respect for the power that an object holds.Mary Worall, MSU Museum Director of Collections
"My team really felt like it would be a really powerful statement to preserve some of that material from these tributes that people left because that, in a way, just documents the history of this and perpetuates that memory," Prather said.
Worrall agrees, saying the items have taken on greater meaning because of their significance to the community.
"For those of us who are drawn to museum work, a lot of that is because we really have a respect for the power that an object holds," she said.
There are no current plans to display objects saved from the memorials.
For now, MSU Museum staff will continue to catalogue, digitize and store the objects, so this tragedy won’t be forgotten.
The Michigan State University Museum is a financial sponsor of WKAR.
