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

Jane Field's ex-husband called her from the 83rd floor on 9/11 to tell her he was okay and would be home shortly. He and his coworkers escaped through fire.

Ellen Lytle, who lives six blocks away from Ground Zero, remembers 9/11 in this interview, recorded on March 6, 2002.

Photographer Joel Meyerowitz started taking pictures at the WTC in 1981. In this interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, recorded on October 23, 2001, he talks about trying to photograph the events of 9/11. Part 4: The pain Meyerowitz felt…

Victor Demarco lives in Battery Park City. He had left for work on 9/11 but went back to his neighborhood to look for his wife during the attack. He describes voicemails left for him while he was out.

Radio Producer Warren Levinson describes the annual WTC Valentine's Day wedding marathon.

Alex Bontilla sang backup in the elegy song for John Buckey, a man who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.

An anonymous woman recommends two Channel 13 programs. "Souls of New York" included an interview with an observation deck guide, and "The Elevator" had a segment about a man who was trapped in the WTC elevator during the 1993 attack and escaped.

Phillip Traugott plays the voicemail he received from his wife at 9:00 a.m. on September 11 as she was watching the towers from SoHo.

New Yorker Nancy Meyer attended a post-9/11 concert and loves "The Bravest," Tom Paxton's song for firefighters.

Cirque du Soleil consultant Don Richards talks about "We Reinvent the Circus," which the troupe performed at the WTC in the 1988.

Brooke Ashworth, who has worked in skyscrapers, talks about the sound of the elevators encapsulating the experience of the building.

Patrick Donnelly, poet and small press editor in Tribeca, offers a peom he wrote.

Downtown resident Daniel Goode will never forget the roar of the first plane as it passed his apartment window on 9/11 or the sound of wrecking ball at Ground Zero.

Broker Tony Jokes, who began working in the WTC soon after it opened, recalls a fire that damaged 1 WTC in 1973 and the 1993 bombing.

Michael Carpenter, who lived two blocks from the towers, offers the many voicemails he received on 9/11.

Eric Milano was a friend of firefighter Christopher Pickford, who was killed on 9/11. Milano made a tribute CD that includes songs he wrote for his friend and other memorial material.

On September 12, Allen Pierce rode his bike to Christopher Street and the West Side Highway to interview the crowd watching rescue workers.

Jon Pretnar has video footage of a sand mandala built by Tibetan monks in the lobby of the WTC around 1994.

Captain D. C. Anderson grew up on New York Harbor and has worked there since the WTC was built. In all the hundreds of times he has sailed around the tip of Manhattan, he has never tired of the view.

In 1998 James Burton and his wife Ann were married in the Valentine's Day Wedding Marathon on the roof deck of the WTC. There were "55 couples [110 people] to match the 110 stories of the building."

Collection Tree

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    • The Sonic Memorial Project