September 11 Digital Archive to Become Part of Library of Congress

The September 11 Digital Archive, a collection of e-mails, photos, and other digital materials gathered by historians at George Mason University and the City University of New York, will become part of the permanent collection of the Library of Congress, the Washington Post reports.

Funded by a $700,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the project has grown over the last eighteen months to some 100,000 digital files, including e-mails, instant messages, video clips, audio recordings, PowerPoint presentations, and computer-animated cartoons. And while some of the submissions were from people who experienced the attacks directly, most came from people who witnessed the events on television.

Some of the materials in the archive predate the attacks, such as a 1989 photo of the kitchen staff of Windows on the World, the spectacular restaurant that sat at the top of one of the towers. The archive also contains digital files that use graphic language and images, including a computer game that allows players to blast away at a scampering Osama bin Laden. Tom Scheinfeldt, the managing director of the archive and an assistant professor of history at George Mason University, says such images are a legitimate part of the historical record and reflect the emotions and experiences of that day. "Our mission is to collect and preserve," he said. "To have this kind of material, from a historian's point of view, is just exhilarating."

Salmon, Jacqueline. “Digital 9/11 Project Gets A National Repository.” Washington Post 9/04/03.

Primary Subject: 9/11 Response

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