Washington ( CNN ) -- National Museum of American History Curator Peter Liebhold describes the day several years ago he spent going through shipping containers filled with debris from United Airlines Flight 93 as `` overpowering , '' even though more than a year had passed since September 11 , 2001 , when the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville , Pennsylvania . `` Going through the debris of an airplane was certainly an experience that I 've never had before , '' said Liebhold , one of three curators from that museum who focused on gathering 9/11 artifacts full time . A special exhibition commemorating 9/11 with the results of their work will open at the museum on Saturday . They were granted access to the materials from Flight 93 after the FBI had finished analyzing them as crime-scene evidence . `` The material was stored in ocean-shipping containers and we opened them up -- I guess we were n't really prepared for how small the bits would be , '' according to Liebhold . `` It smelled of jet fuel , of moldy cloth and paper and just sort of mysterious odors that were -- I guess in all honesty -- plain scary , '' he said . Liebhold and his fellow curators by this time had an idea of what the items they would seek as they dug through the plane debris . `` One of the big stories on Flight 93 was that unlike the other flights ( hijacked on 9/11 ) , it was delayed in taking off and the hijacking happened a little bit later , '' the curator said . `` The passengers knew what their fate was going to be through cell-phone communication . People had talked to people on the ground . So finding a cell phone was something we really sought , to tell that story of how people became informed and what helped motivate them to action . '' They found a GTE phone that has become part of the Washington museum 's permanent exhibit on 9-11 . The curators also collected a gauge from the flight panel of United Flight 93 , as control of the plane itself was part of the story . They also tried to find items that would represent the people who were on the plane , such as seat belts that had been torn in the crash . And , they found a part of an American flag . `` Every United Airlines plane over the exit door has a small American flag painted into the fuselage and we found the red-and-white stripes of the flag , '' Liebhold said . `` For me , one of the strongest icons is one of the simplest and smallest . And that 's the little orange call button that I never really paid attention to , '' he said . `` There was this small little orange button and it 's chipped and it 's scratched but it 's a picture of a person and in a sense , it 's asking for help . '' The curators were granted a single day to go through the Flight 93 containers . At the end of the day , they threw away the clothes they had been wearing during their search , as the clothes smelled like that strange odor from the container . Liebhold said that during the height of their collecting , he and his colleagues also communicated with family members and others affected by the attacks , to ask for other items related to September 11 . But , they always worked through an intermediary so that those affected would be comfortable turning down their requests and would not have to say no face to face . `` It 's difficult to know where the boundary between history and current event is , and when you are collecting something that is a current event , you 're emotionally tied to it and it 's difficult to have any kind of distance to understand it , '' Liebhold said . `` But , so much of it is parting -- if you do n't act fairly quickly , it could easily be gone forever . '' More than 50 9/11 artifacts collected by curators from the American History Museum will be on display in a special exhibition called `` September 11 : Remembrance and Reflections . '' The items , collected from New York , the Pentagon and Shanksville , will be on display starting Saturday at the museum on tables , not behind glass , to give visitors a close-up , intimate view through September 11 , 2011 .
A special museum exhibition commemorating 9/11 opens in Washington . The exhibit includes material from United Flight 93 , which crashed after hijacking . Going through debris from the airliner was `` overpowering , '' a museum curator says .