Documenting a Digital Event

Tom Scheinfeldt

As the morning of 11 September 2001 unfolded, the media grasped at history to provide a sensible reference point for the shocking events it presented to the public. In the heat of the moment, it became all too common to compare the attacks of 11 September 2001 with the attack on Pearl Harbor of 7 December 1941. So successful was this comparison that now, more than a year later, it remains commonplace in both media and popular circles.

The comparison has, however, come under some scrutiny by the historical community. Among other things, historians point out differences in the nature of the targeted communities, public response to the events, the relationship between attacker and attacked, and in the broader cultural and geopolitical circumstances in which the two events were situated. Yet even putting substantive debates aside, it must be admitted that from the historian's perspective there are important practical differences between Pearl Harbor and 9/11--differences that speak to the nature of sources.

The historical record of 1941 consists almost entirely of paper--government reports, letters from home, photographic prints and newspaper headlines. Not so in 2001--September 11 was not only the first major event of the twenty-first century, it was also the first major event of the Internet age. For the first time, people experienced a major historical event as it unfolded on their computers--both at work and in classrooms. Much of the record of 11 September 2001 sits on our hard drives and servers--in documents, e-mails, voice mails, digital images, and web sites. Without a concerted effort by historians and archivists, these fragile materials will surely be lost--even at the touch of a delete key. The September 11 Digital Archive <http://www.911digitalarchive.org/> is working to prevent that loss.

Organized by the American Social History Project at the City University of New York and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University with funding by a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the September 11 Digital Archive uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the history of the 11 September 2001 attacks and the public responses to them. In particular, the archive works to collect stories, e-mails, digital images and other "born-digital" materials relating to the attacks of September 11. Additionally, the archive organizes and annotates the most important web-based September 11 resources and develops online materials to contextualize and teach about the events. The archive is quickly becoming the premier resting place for the vast digital record precipitated by September 11.

Launched on 11 March 2002, the archive's first year has seen remarkable success. Over 25,000 e-mails, 10,000 first hand stories and 5,000 digital images have been preserved and permanently archived. A wide-ranging series of partnerships has been formed with other institutions, including the Museum of the City of New York, National Public Radio's Sonic Memorial, and the Library of Congress. The archive is especially pleased to have been selected as the Smithsonian Institution's designated repository for digital materials relating to September 11 and its special exhibition, "Bearing Witness to History", which opened on the first anniversary of the events of September 11. In this capacity, the archive is collecting the first-hand, September 11 recollections of visitors to the National Museum of American History's exhibit halls and web site, both in text and digital audio. In the next year, the archive will develop educational materials and expand its outreach efforts to communities less likely to contribute directly through the Internet. It will also begin work on a set of tools and guides for online history projects in conjunction with the Center for History and New Media's ECHO: Exploring and Collecting History Online project <http://echo.gmu.edu/>.

The September 11 Digital Archive is extensive and varied--including materials from rescue and recovery workers, victims' families, survivors from inside the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and members of the affected communities. Just as important, however, are contributions from ordinary Americans and people around the world. One thing that sets the September 11 Digital Archive apart from other historical repositories is the large number of spontaneous grassroots contributions, personal stories of September 11, and pieces of digital artwork. Unlike traditional "brick and mortar" archives, there are no physical limits to the size of the September 11 Digital Archive's collection. If it needs to be expanded, more disk space is added. This means that no digital object is too trivial for the archive to accept.

Another thing that sets the archive's collections apart is the large number of e-mail and instant messages that were written during the moments of the attacks. For instance, the archive contains a series of Blackberry wireless e-mail messages written by people escaping the World Trade Center. Of course, the substance of these e-mails is moving and fascinating and not in itself very different from the substance of, say, letters written by U.S. service people at Pearl Harbor. What is very different about these communications is their media. Unlike Pearl Harbor and other earlier events, witnesses to September 11 connected to the news and to each other in real time. In these exchanges we see the events as they unfolded and the immediate responses of those involved.

Through continuing efforts to collect the digital record of September 11, the archive will insure that future historians do not fail to understand all experiences of that monumental day. For more information, visit <http://www.911digitalarchive.org> or <info@911digitalarchive.org>.

Tom Scheinfeldt is codirector of the September 11 Digital Archive and a fellow at the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.