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Exhibition Reviews
"Resistance or Terrorism? The 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing." Wisconsin Historical Society Museum, 30 N. Carroll St., Madison, WI 53703.
Temporary exhibition, Aug. 23–Dec. 30, 2005. Case exhibition, approximately 4 ft. high, 3 1/2 ft. wide, 2 ft. deep. Leslie A. Bellais, curator.
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| Before dawn on August 24, 1970, a truck carrying a bomb made from fertilizer and diesel fuel was detonated outside Sterling Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Four young men, students and former students, were responsible. Their target in Sterling Hall was the Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC), which had become a flash point for the local anti-Vietnam War movement. Although they claimed their intent was only to destroy the amrc, their bomb killed Robert Fassnacht, a postdoctoral student who was at work inside the building. Fassnacht had no connection to the AMRC. |
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Thirty-five years after the event, the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) mounted a temporary exhibition titled "Resistance or Terrorism? The 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing." The exhibition was small—a single large case mounted on a pedestal on the museum's fourth floor. The most evocative artifact was a twisted fragment of the truck's engine block, which made plain the destructive power of the explosion. Other artifacts included: two T-shirts produced by the committee formed to defend Karl Armstrong, one of the bombers; a booklet titled The Politics of University Research (ca. 1970) by James Rowan; and the wanted poster for Leo Burt, one of the four bombers, the only bomber who was not captured and tried. Adjacent to the exhibition case was a wall-mounted notebook in which exhibition viewers could write. |
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