VIDEO: How new May 4 Visitors Center Came Together

Hundreds of images, videos and artifacts that comprise the new May 4 Visitors Center at Kent State University will open to the public for the first time Saturday.

The three-gallery, museum-style center presents a timeline of activity that walks visitors through the atmosphere of the 1960s, the days and seconds before the May 4, 1970 shootings and then a reflection of those historic events.

The center represents years of consideration by university officials, public forums and witnesses to the shootings about what elements would comprise the galleries.

The $1.1 million visitors center, designed by Gallagher and Associates, based in Silver Spring, Md. was paid for with contributions from the public, veterans groups, a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities and $667,000 from all 16 deans from every Kent State campus and college, according to the university.

"Reviewers for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ohio Humanities Council, the Ohio Preservation Office and the Department of the Interior provided input and feedback," according to Kent State.