In the words of the exhibit website, "The World Trade Center: Rescue, Recovery, Response details the history of the World Trade Center, the September 11 attacks, the rescue efforts, the evidence recovery operation at the Fresh Kills facility, and the public response to the September 11th events."
The website is divided into five sections—The World Trade Center, Rescue, Recovery, Response, and Voices.
The World Trade Center provides a brief overview of the design process, a construction and habitation chronology, statistics on the towers (did you know 17 babies were born at the WTC and that more than 3,500 people worked on the construction site?), a small amount of information on the response to the 1993 bombing, and photographs of several damaged artifacts removed from the WTC towers. The very mundane nature of these objects— for example, floor number signs and a fire extinguisher—may make them more emotionally distressing to students. Proceed with care, but recognize that the inclusion of these artifacts can provide powerful commentary on 9/11.
Rescue shares the story of the first 24 hours following the attacks. The primary focus is on the sacrifice of responders, including 343 NYC Fire Department employees. A timeline breaks the day down into small portions—in some cases minutes—with a an image and sentence describing events. Additional subsections introduce the Engine 6 Company, provide brief remembrances of the members of the company on duty at the time of the tragedy (two of whom survived), interactive schematics and images of the Engine 6 Pumper before and after damage, a description of why the WTC towers' engineering failed, and a selection of artifacts used by rescue workers. This section includes videos in which the two Engine 6 survivors discuss their experiences. These are very emotional, clearly depict pain, and also discuss the men and women that fell from the towers. As a result, educators should take care in their decisions to share these film clips.
Recovery details efforts to recover objects, the deceased, and criminal evidence from the remains of the towers after their transportation to the Fresh Kills site. Here, visitors can find information on and images of the cleanup of Ground Zero; a brief overview of the Fresh Kills site; a to-the-point listing of the sorting process complete with images; images of airplane pieces; photographic panoramas of Fresh Kills; images of items and signs used at the Fresh Kills site; and statistics concerning the site, personnel involved, and objects found. If visitors are concerned, they should be aware there are no images of human remains.
Response addresses the myriad ways in which people responded to the events. The section contains images of newspaper front pages and images of and short introductions to the Union Square scrolls and St. Paul's Chapel memorials, St. Paul's Chapel and Nino's restaurant as places of refuge for recovery workers, and the Fulton Street viewing platform from which the recovery efforts could be watched, as well as photographs of objects and messages of support from around the world.
The final section, Voices, contains lengthy audio interview clips with Patty Clark who worked on the 65th floor of the North Tower; Lee Ielpi who sought his firefighter son; and Jim and Marilyn Geiger, who offer a married couple's perspective on the situation from both within and outside the building. These interviews include individual coping strategies and descriptions of events.
While this is a strong addition to the web content concerning 9/11, it is important to note that it may be a very difficult site for many as it brings human stories of emotional pain to the forefront.
Professor Edward T. Linenthal discusses the similarities and differences in cultural reactions to the events of September 11, 2001, and the aftermath of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing of April 19, 1995. He explores the co-construction of narrative and memorial process in light of considerations for the World Trade Center and a memorial at the site.
There are countless websites which catalog web activities related to the spread of information on 9/11. However, film is another way to approach research on the day. At what time did news of 9/11 break in China? Japan? Iraq? Russia? How did news coverage vary from one U.S. news station to another?
This archive contains television coverage arranged in visual timelines by day and channel. This format allows users to easily compare the information being aired at the same time by NBC, FOX, BBC World, and Japan's NHK—to name just a handful. Additionally, the timeline permits educators to find clips broadcast at specific times between 9/11 and the 17th of September.
The website also includes 10 talks given at a scholarly conference about the implications of film archives in historical research.
Note that foreign news channels have not been subtitled.
The Library of Congress is a well-known and respected content source for the classroom. However, given the wide variety of collections, searching for items on a given topic can be time-consuming. This website links visitors to the library's September 11 resources by collection, so there's no need to run multiple searches.
First and foremost, the website is dated. However, this is no reason to assume that it is without worthwhile content. The exhibit and memorial events it advertises are long past, so the exhibition overview and public programs sections are only useful as primary sources. That said, the collection links are the heart of the site. The American Folklife Center offers a video presentation on the Library of Congress's personal account collection and three drawings by children. For a small collection of chapbooks, a poster, and newspaper clippings, try the Area Studies/Overseas Field Offices collection. The Geography and Map Division provides aerial and fly-through views of the Twin Towers site, while the Prints and Photographs Division's offerings are the most extensive, with posters, fine art, photography, architectural proposals for new World Trade Center designs, political cartoons, and comic book art. Rare Book and Special Collections houses only two photographs of Kitty Caparella's book art, The Message; while the Serial and Government Publications Division's page holds three U.S. newspaper pages announcing the attacks and a video on the Library of Congress's 9/11 newspaper collection.
While the resources are limited, educators who need to find 9/11 materials quickly should consider taking a few minutes on this Library of Congress portal site, particularly if they are interested in items from the Prints and Photographs Division.
CBS's The Early Show draws parallels between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor in this short video clip filmed for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, which uses interviews with two eyewitnesses.
This archive collects U.S. official documents concerning the national stance toward terrorism. Documents are sorted into several "volumes," which cover topics such as policy, the last war in Afghanistan, Nixon and the end of biowarfare programs, the reign of King Zahir (1970-1973), the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax controversy, the U.S. Special Force's search for bin Laden, U.S.-Taliban policy, and the air-ground transcripts of the planes lost during the 9/11 crisis.
Expect to find reports, memorandum, instructions, statements, transcripts, minutes, and more. The site and its content can be fairly dense, so it may be best to use the site to find one or two documents which are suitable for your classroom rather than having students explore it on their own.
Lowell E. Jacoby, executive vice president for Strategic Intelligence Opportunities at CACI International, discusses what he believes U.S. citizens need to think about and what they need to prepare for in proceeding forward from 9/11.
Video and audio options are available.
In 9 short video clips, ranging in length from 57 seconds to over three minutes, scholars Joseph Cirincione, Ricardo Lagos, P. Terrence Hopmann, Thomas Nichols, and Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro examine the issue of terrorism in the wake of 9/11. Intended to accompany the Choices Program's curriculum Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy, these clips may still be used independently.
Registration is required, but free.
Patrick Clawson, Deputy Director of Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, looks at Iran's development of nuclear weapons.
Audio and video options are available.
Harvey Sicherman, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, looks at the current war in Iraq; and asks what relationship it has with the War on Terrorism. He outlines previous presidential stands on terrorism, which largely ideologically opposed terrorism, but did not take direct, open action against it—contrasting them with Bush's active declaration of war against terrorism. Sicherman argues that the war in Iraq functions as an extension of the war on terrorism and of previous U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Video and audio options are available.