Hard Hat
Photo credit: David E. Starke
Accession Number: C.2022.121.1
Dimensions: Unavailable
Source: Joseph Giaimo
Credit Line: Gift of Correctional Police Officer Joseph Giaimo (NJDOC)
Description
Plastic hard hat with cap-style brim and interior ratchet suspension. The hard hat is white with a sticker on the front that features the NYPD logo and text printed below that reads: "NYPD | RECOVERY | DETAIL." "9/19/01" is handwritten below the sticker. On the right side of the hat is the signature of the actor, Robert De Niro in black marker.
Plastic hard hat with cap-style brim and interior ratchet suspension. The hard hat is white with a sticker on the front that features the NYPD logo and text printed below that reads: "NYPD | RECOVERY | DETAIL." "9/19/01" is handwritten below the sticker. On the right side of the hat is the signature of the actor, Robert De Niro in black marker.
Historical Notes
In 2001, Joseph Giaimo was a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer assigned to the Huntington County Jail in the western portion of the state. On 9/11, he watched the events unfold in downtown Manhattan from a television at his workplace. A week later, Giaimo and his Corrections partner Jack Baum began their journey to Ground Zero, gaining access to the site on Wednesday, September 19. Giaimo and Baum received hard hats, knee pads, and face masks from a command post near the site and joined one of the bucket brigades on the pile. The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other responders as buckets were filled with rubble and passed down the line hand-to-hand in order to transport the heavy and voluminous wreckage out of the site bit by bit. The pair volunteered at the site in various capacities for approximately two months.
One day at the site, while on a meal break at the North Cove Marina, Giaimo saw the actor Robert De Niro greeting and personally thanking responders. Giaimo recalled that De Niro graciously took photos with many of the responders and autographed their belongings, including Giaimo’s hard hat. For several weeks thereafter, Giaimo continued to wear the signed hard hat during his volunteer service on the pile.
In 2001, Joseph Giaimo was a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer assigned to the Huntington County Jail in the western portion of the state. On 9/11, he watched the events unfold in downtown Manhattan from a television at his workplace. A week later, Giaimo and his Corrections partner Jack Baum began their journey to Ground Zero, gaining access to the site on Wednesday, September 19. Giaimo and Baum received hard hats, knee pads, and face masks from a command post near the site and joined one of the bucket brigades on the pile. The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other responders as buckets were filled with rubble and passed down the line hand-to-hand in order to transport the heavy and voluminous wreckage out of the site bit by bit. The pair volunteered at the site in various capacities for approximately two months.
One day at the site, while on a meal break at the North Cove Marina, Giaimo saw the actor Robert De Niro greeting and personally thanking responders. Giaimo recalled that De Niro graciously took photos with many of the responders and autographed their belongings, including Giaimo’s hard hat. For several weeks thereafter, Giaimo continued to wear the signed hard hat during his volunteer service on the pile.
