The September 11 Digital Archive is a digital archive that stores information relating to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

on the United States in 2001. It contains over 150,000 digital files including images, videos, audio, and over 40,000 first-hand accounts of the attacks. It is part of the collection of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

History

The September 11 Digital Archive launched in January 2002, several months after the

of 2001. It is developed at the

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), formerly the Center for History and New Media (CHNM), is a research center specializing in digital history and information technology at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax County, V ...

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

in partnership with the

American Social History Project The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning (ASHP/CML) is a research center at the City University of New York Graduate Center developing innovative instructional materials and approaches to teaching and learning the social ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. The project started with a $700,000 grant from

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support origina ...

and aims to "create a permanent record of the events of September 11, 2001". In September 2003, a copy of the September 11 Digital Archive collection was acquired by the

. From 2003 to 2011 the project did not have adequate funding, which led to concerns about lack of sustainability, such as a need to redesign the website and update metadata. The archive also worried they would not be able to defend against a potential anniversary cyberattack. In 2010 it was reported that the website design had not been changed since 2004, and that although the project would still accept new submissions, they would not appear on the website. Many of these problems were solved after a

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Tru ...

grant.

Collection

The types of information stored in the archive include photos, emails, videos, animations and cartoons, stories from survivors and witnesses, audio, videos, documents, instant messages, slideshow presentations, and web blogs. Images include photos of the World Trade Center and the New York skyline before the attacks. It also has post cards and flyers from New York streets. The archive contains documents taken from the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fi ...

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

and other organizations. It also contains interviews of people with ancestry from the Middle East who were affected by backlash and harassment following the attacks. The archive also went through Arabic websites and worked with the

Museum of Chinese in America The Museum of Chinese in America (; abbreviated MOCA) is a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history. It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) education and cultural institution that presents the living history, heritage, culture, and ...

to record and translate interviews of

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

residents. The archive originally aimed for 1,000 'stories'. By September 2002, it had 90,000, and had a total storage of 50 gigabytes in September 2003. As of 2021 there are over 150,000 digital files in the collection, including 40,000 first-hand accounts and 15,000 images.

Contributors

The archive encourages many people to contribute. They do not have to be survivors or witnesses, nor to have been at the scene in New York or the Pentagon or Pennsylvania at the time. Foreigners are also encouraged to contribute; a Spanish version of the website archive was created to encourage contributions from Spanish speakers. Because anyone can contribute to the archive, it contains some incorrect or misleading information. In the archive's FAQ section, they argue that a misleading story in the archive is still useful for historians because it "could reveal certain personal and emotional aspects of the event that would otherwise be lost in a strict authentication and appraisal process." However, it can make it difficult for historians looking through the archive to determine what is real and what is not.

History

Collection

Contributors

See also

References

Further reading