Nav MenuInside The Gallery
The exhibition gallery was designed to be a reflective space. Visitors were invited to consider multiple perspectives about Operation Babylift and share their own reflections. Get a sense of the exhibition through the interactive floorplan and photo gallery below.
Visitors could choose to identify their connection to Operation Babylift by checking one of the boxes. (Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Visitors shared a vast diversity of ideas, questions, and memories. (Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Over 350 visitors hung a reflection card in the gallery.
(Photo credit: Marc Hor)
Visitor reflection cards became a living artifact during the exhibition.(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
In the Reflections area, visitors are asked to pause and consider what they have experienced in the gallery.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Heather Sharp carried this bag when she was removed from Vietnam just before her 11th birthday.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Organization charts show how 5,400 volunteers were structured.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Tricia Houston’s documentation, footprints and a medical exam, created by Presidio volunteers.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
The Nguyen Da Yen v Kissinger legal team created information cards for the Vietnamese children.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
In his thank you to volunteers, Presidio Commander, Col. Kane, acknowledged the complexity of Operation Babylift.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
This list of Vietnamese phrases was given to volunteers.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Phone memos recorded volunteers’ offers to care for the Vietnamese children.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Each object carried one label written by curators and three labels written by community members with different connections to Operation Babylift.
The Perspectives section offered objects with labels written by community contributors.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
High school students listen to dialogues.
The exhibition was shaped by the question: How can dialogue be a bridge across differences?
The exhibition holds multiple perspectives, including how Operation Babylift was contested.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
The timeline is called History: The Importance of Context
(Photo credit: The Presidio Trust)
Over 40 community contributors helped shape the exhibition from concept to content.
Vietnamese translations were positioned above the English text throughout the gallery.
(Photo credit: Marc Hors)
Mike Frailey, adopted through Operation Babylift, stands next to an image of himself 40 years earlier.
A newspaper photograph of Vietnamese children en route to Oakland, CA fills the window of the gallery.
(Photo credit: Gabriel Branbury)
The exhibition looked at a complex historical event across multiple perspectives and in a contemporary way.
(Image design: Volume Inc.)
The exhibition took place inside the Heritage Gallery of the Presidio Officer’s Club. (Photo credit: Gabriel Branbury)