National Tragedy Reinforces Importance of Records

John W. Carlin

At the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), we are doing everything in our power to assist agencies whose records were destroyed. In New York City and at the Pentagon, NARA staff has offered its assistance to assess the extent of records damage, stabilize damaged records, and reconstruct files, if possible. We have also scheduled a number of training workshops on vital records and disaster preparedness to be presented at Federal records centers.

More specifically, our New York Regional Archives is collaborating with other members of New York City's archival community to provide assistance during this period of recovery and rebuilding. Working together, this group is addressing both the immediate need for disaster assessment and recovery, and the longer-term initiative to document the people, organizations, and activities surrounding the World Trade Center attack. These efforts have only just begun and are expected to change and grow in the upcoming months.

Just as recent events have made us all more vigilant in regard to personal security, we have also become more aware of the safeguards that are necessary to protect our vital records. The records of any organization--whether it be a government agency or a private business--are key to its survival and success. For example, as consumers we expect our credit card companies to keep accurate information on our credit ratings and our insurance companies to protect our policy records. As patients, it is vital to us that our doctors, pharmacists and healthcare organizations safeguard our medical records. And as American citizens, we expect government agencies to keep records pertaining to military service, land rights, taxes, and much more.

Many organizations in New York City and Washington, D.C., did have vital records backups and recovery plans--and therefore saved their records--and in many cases, their businesses. But sadly, this was not the case in most instances. For example, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has confirmed that the entire contents of the library stored in the sub-basement of the World Trade Center were destroyed.

In this time of increased national security, it is also important to remember that the records of any group of people, whether it be a nation, a government agency or a private business, are key to its survival and success and have historically been targets of aggression. For instance, you may recall that the Gulf War originally began when Iraq made an attempt to take over the nation of Kuwait. But it was more than the Kuwaiti borders that Iraq intended to erase--it was also the identity of Kuwait's people. One of the United Nations' resolutions that led to the Gulf War was a condemnation of attempts by Iraq "to destroy the civil records maintained by the legitimate government of Kuwait."

Simply put, Saddam Hussein understood that such records document the legitimacy of a government and whatever legal standing, rights, and entitlements the citizens of a country have. Destroying the national records of Kuwait would make it a lot easier to end that nation's independence and subjugate its citizens. The Serbs in the Bosnian War seem likely to have understood this too, when they shelled the National Library in Sarajevo along with other cultural institutions.

As a professional community we know and understand that records matter in people's lives, and records matter in the life of a nation. They document the identities, rights, and entitlements of citizens, and the actions for which officials are accountable. And they document historical experience and memory, so that it can be assessed and reassessed as historians continually seek better understanding of what has happened within the context of our communities, our nation, and our world.

While we do not yet know how history will remember the events of September 11--or how our future as a nation will be shaped by this tragedy, one thing is clear--the records we hold at the National Archives and Records Administration attest to the fact that our country has faced tragedy before and emerged even stronger. From the records of George Washington's bitter winter at Valley Forge, to the photographs of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires, to the long lists of those killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, the history of our country is one of courage and perseverance. Now, as in the past, we will unite to face the challenges that lie ahead.