September 11 Digital Archive

The Sonic Memorial Project

Title

The Sonic Memorial Project

Description

SonicMemorial.org is an open archive and an online audio installation of the history of The World Trade Center. It collected stories, ambient sounds, voicemails, and archival recordings to tell the rich history of the twin towers, the neighborhood and the events of 9/11. Led by NPR's Lost & Found Sound, The Sonic Memorial Project is a cross-media collaboration of more than 50 independent radio and new media producers, artists, historians, and people from around the world who have contributed personal and archival recordings. To date, we have gathered more than 1,000 contributions, many of which have been woven into feature stories by Lost & Found Sound and broadcast on NPR. SonicMemorial.org is produced by Picture Projects and dotsperinch in collaboration with Lost & Found Sound.

Items in the The Sonic Memorial Project Collection

Filmmaker Katie McBride describes her plans to make a documentary about the residents of Battery Park City who were relocated after 9/11.

Dave's father worked right across from the WTC in the 1960s and 1970s and took slides of the WTC being built.

Kathleen Schroeder recalls listening to the radio on 9/11. She hopes it will be possible for the Sonic Memorial to include the communications of ordinary citizens as they tried to contact loved ones that day.

Dan Jassen descibes how he taped the national moment of silence on September 14, 2001, turning the radio dial across all the stations to record the absence of sound.

An anonymous Latino man talks about all the people from Latin America who worked the late shift at the WTC. He describes how the towers were filled with music while the overnight maintenance staff did their work.

Connecticut resident Ross Pinell visited the towers several years ago. He is haunted by the sound of the wind reverberating in the façades of the buildings.

Virginia-based recording artist Dan Dibble wrote a song to celebrate the spirit of firefighters and rescue workers. He is donating the profits to the Red Cross.

Texan Allison Downey, a songwriter, wrote On the Day to raise money to help with the cause.

To Jessica Webbington, who lives in Los Angeles, the documentary film The Cruise, about a New York tour guide named Timothy Speed Levitch, is an inspired portrait of the city.

Tennessean Randy Bragg tells how his ten-year-old daughter dealt with 9/11 by pretending to be a newscaster reporting the events.

David Fridell is saddened that the crashes at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania receive so little attention.

Scot McCluskey, a Lutheran pastor who lives in Nebraska, wrote a song based on Romans 8:38-39 that reflects on the events of 9/11.

RJ, a former flight attendant, always loved the Twin Towers.

David Greenfield's son, Noam, was born two years ago on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year--so his birthday is September 11. The Greenfields have decided to celebrate Noam's birth on Rosh Hashanah every year rather than burden him with the date.

Michelle Martinez visited New York from California in 1984. She reads a postcard she wrote about the WTC during her trip and meant to send to her brother. That brother now lives in New York; he watched the towers fall on 9/11. She rediscovered the…

Kathy Naughton, who lives in Seattle, attended the annual midwives convention at the WTC and loved it. She particularly remembers a jazz piano player she heard at Windows on the World.

Trellis Dalembert describes the video she has of her son being born in Florida on 9/11. On the tape, the doctor comments that it's a special day to be born, and the baby cries.

The Dowdens were scheduled to fly on 9/11 and found out about the attack on their way to the airport--they can't help feeling guilty. Elaine Dowden also describes a scrapbook they made to document a 1988 visit to the WTC with their children.

USO man Donald Grady came to New York for Op-Sail in 1976 and went to the WTC. He remembers a small child who was scared at first to go up to the 110th floor but, after being persuaded to go, really enjoyed the view.

Washington State resident Gabriel Keenan left his small hometown to attend college in NYC. When he needed to escape the city noise, he would go to the top of the WTC.

Collection Tree

  • Audio
    • The Sonic Memorial Project