From the Associated Press:
NEW YORK (AP) — Letters written by Helen Keller. Forty-thousand photographic negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by the president’s personal cameraman. Sculptures by Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin. The 1921 agreement that created the agency that built the World Trade Center.
Besides ending nearly 3,000 lives, destroying planes and reducing buildings to tons of rubble and ash, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed tens of thousands of records, irreplaceable historical documents and art.
We, as a nation, have officially recovered from the trauma of 9/11 if we can lament the loss of 2,996 lives and the loss of JFK memorabilia in the same breath.
Yeah, except the ten year anniversary is coming up. So there will be a temporary resurgence most likely.
Well hell, we can always make more people. Those negatives were IRREPLACEABLE.
I vote for “destroying planes” as most egregious entry in that catalog of losses.
I found the article fascinating. This is the first time I remember reading about damages and loss and what was actually in the towers besides people. And, for better or worse, after working in archives and libraries, hearing about the damages to those collections is more visceral than even watching the planes hit the towers was, for me. The loss of records feels real while the event itself still seems surreal.
@3 thanks for confirming all the worst stereotypes of leftists. You made my morning that much brighter.
Well @5, that’s because irony translates so well on teh Interwebs…
This is actually kind of old news. It was no secret that there were a lot of different kinds of tenants in those buildings. Extremely wealthy tenants who filled their spaces with valuables. Valuables that were almost certainly covered by detailed insurance policies. Insurance policies that are on file in other locations, held by insurance companies that simply do not want to pay claims. Nothing new.
Or maybe the skreikocracy has lessened their grip on America long enough for us to…
OMG! AMERICANS DIED ON 9/11!!!! CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND THE HORROR, THE TRAGEDY, THE UNPRECEDENTED DESTRUCTION THAT WAS 9/11! 2996 LIVES LOST AND ALL YOU CAN THINK OF ARE PICTURES! 9/11, PEOPLE, MY GOD, 9/11!!!!!!
Nope. Looks like the grip is tight as it ever was…
I once was at an event where there was a kids’ inflatable giant slide modeled after a sinking Titanic. No shit!
I figure once an amusement company builds a bouncy house in the shape of flaming twin towers, we’ll officially be over the tragedy.
Recovered? Far from it. Americans still see terrorists around every corner, and still run for their hidey-holes at the slightest hint something might be up. The terrorists won…
@7: Did you even read the story, oh jaded, cynical know-it-all? Tell us how insurance replaces these (from the very first paragraph):
“Letters written by Helen Keller. Forty-thousand photographic negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by the president’s personal cameraman. Sculptures by Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin. The 1921 agreement that created the agency that built the World Trade Center.”
@11 I did indeed read the article. The article isn’t about ‘replacing’ the lost items. It is about not knowing all the items that were lost, and uses those flashy examples to hint at the lost treasure trove. The article is about all sorts of parties trying to put together lists of what was lost, and having difficulties because of “atmosphere of litigation, politics and overall distrust surrounding the 9/11 attacks has made information sharing and compilation a complex task“. And that was 6 years ago! Old story!
The point is that a very important source of that information are the insurance policies that covered such valuable items. The policies were not stored on site, of course, so why the mystery? Because the insurance companies are *still* dragging out the claims process, fighting for every last penny. They are doing the same thing to Katrina victims.
Also, I’m just not buying the concept that such famous & important items were not thoroughly documented by multiple sources. My inner cynic is thinking this is a planted story by the folks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to put raise some awareness 5 weeks before the big flag waving session. But that kind of thing never happens in the press.
@12 Clearly you’ve never worked in an archive. Documentation of collections is a huge problem, even in archives that have decent resources. Most archives are lacking in resources, even to document for insurance purposes. I do agree with your point about insurance companies dragging out the claim process, just think you’re overstating the extent to which off-site insurance policies can tell us all that we lost. I am also very critical of the tone of the original post, as though somehow caring about the loss of these resources diminishes our ability to care about the loss of human life. Anyone who knows about the history of archives knows about stories such as archival collections being key resources in documenting the loss of life under, say, the Khmer Rouge and calling those responsible to answer for that loss of life would not try to argue that concern about archives competes with concern about human beings. The problem is that so few understand anything about archives…
Knock knock
who’s there?
911
911 who?
(Sad voice) You said you’d never forget