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Cataclysm and Challenge Impact of September 11, 2001, on Our Nation’s Cultural Heritage A Report by Heritage Preservation

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Page 1: Cataclysm and Challenge - Resources

Cataclysm and Challenge Impact of September 11, 2001, on Our Nation’s Cultural Heritage

A Report by Heritage Preservation

Page 2: Cataclysm and Challenge - Resources

© 2002 Heritage Preservation, Inc.

All rights reserved. Heritage Preservation receives funding from the National Park Service,Department of the Interior. However, the contents and opinions contained in this publicationdo not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior.

Printed in the United States of America

Cover: Sphere for Plaza Fountainby Fritz Koenig underwent a transformation as a result of theevents of September 11, 2001. Originally installed at the World Trade Center (top left), it survivedthe collapse of the neighboring Towers partially intact (top right). After cleaning, it was moved toBattery Park and rededicated in its damaged state as a memorial to the victims of the terroristattack (bottom photos).

Credits:Top left, courtesy the Port Authority of New York and New JerseyTop right, photo by Bri Rodriguez/FEMA News PhotoBottom photos by Kyra Skvir

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Cataclysm and Challenge

Impact of September 11, 2001, on Our Nation’s Cultural Heritage

A report by Heritage Preservationon behalf of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force

Ruth Hargraves, Project Director

The Bay Foundation of New York City and the National Endowment for the Humanitiesgenerously provided funding for this report.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all those who so willingly shared their experiences of September 11 throughinterviews, written documentation, telephone conversations, and electronic narratives. We particu-larly applaud the staff members who responded to our survey while still coping with recovery afterthe tragedy. Although space does not permit the listing of individual names, their institutional affil-iations are noted on page 23.

We are especially grateful to Barbara Roberts of the Frick Collection; Rae Zimmerman, Directorof the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Ser-vice, New York University; and Kyra Skvir of New York City for their unique contributions to thepreparation of this report.

We appreciate the staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), both in Wash-ington and in Region II, who took time from their many pressing responsibilities in recent monthsto answer our questions and support this endeavor.

Thanks are also due to the many professionals in conservation and in disaster response whoreviewed our survey and the final manuscript.

The staff of Heritage Preservation has provided extensive support and expertise to this project.Diane Mossholder ably designed and edited the report, Céline Guisset managed the survey data,and Lucy Kurtz helped track down survey respondents. The project was conducted under the gen-eral leadership of Jane Long, Director of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, and MoiraEgan, Vice President for External Relations.

Finally, we would like to thank the project director, Ruth Hargraves, whose tenacity and passionwere essential in bringing this project to fruition.

Lawrence L. RegerPresidentHeritage Preservation

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This report has been produced by the Her-itage Emergency National Task Force,

established in 1995 to help libraries, museums,archives, and historical sites protect culturalproperty from natural disasters and other emer-gencies. It addresses that goal by promotingemergency preparedness and mitigation and byproviding expert information on response andsalvage when disasters occur. Co-sponsored bythe Federal Emergency Management Agencyand Heritage Preservation, Inc., the Task Forceis composed of more than 30 federal agenciesand national service organizations.

With support from the National Endowmentfor the Humanities and the Bay Foundation, theTask Force has assessed the impact of the eventsof September 11 on cultural and historicresources in Lower Manhattan and at the Penta-gon. Descriptions of that day and its aftermathare based on official reports, press accounts,interviews, surveys, public forum discussions,and written and oral statements. A list ofsources is provided on page 22.

The report begins with a short overview ofthe diverse cultural property universe that exist-ed in and around the World Trade Center beforethe attacks. It then describes the artworks, his-toric and archaeological artifacts, archives, andlibraries that were destroyed or damaged, as wellas the condition of those that survived. Outdoor

sculpture and historic buildings are included inthis summary.

An analysis of the results from a survey ofLower Manhattan collecting institutions duringthe winter of 2001-2002 is provided. The TaskForce wanted not only to assess the condition oftheir collections following September 11, butalso to evaluate how prepared the institutionshad been to deal with any type of emergency.We hoped to document emergency managementefforts that proved most beneficial as well asidentify resources needed to cope more effec-tively with future disasters. Therefore, the sur-vey concentrated primarily on conservation andemergency preparedness issues.

Survey results are discussed in separate sec-tions related to physical damage and emergencypreparedness, disruptions in operations, docu-mentation of collections, and communicationswith the emergency management field.

The report concludes with a series of recom-mendations based on survey findings and exten-sive follow-up interviews (page 20). AlthoughSeptember 11 was caused by an act of terror,standard emergency plans and response provedthe most effective way of coping with the result-ing disaster. The recommendations, therefore,are designed to address any type of emergency,and we believe their adoption would benefit col-lecting institutions throughout the country.

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Introduction

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For those unfamiliar with thegeography of the World TradeCenter, a short description mightbe helpful. The 16-acre site is inLower Manhattan betweenChurch and West Streets. Built bythe Port Authority of New Yorkand New Jersey, the complex wascomposed of seven buildings. OneWorld Trade Center and TwoWorld Trade Center each stood110 stories high and were collec-tively known as the Twin Towers.In this report, we will refer tothem as Tower One (the NorthTower) and Tower Two (the SouthTower.) An open plaza around thetowers contained pieces of monu-mental outdoor sculpture. ThreeWorld Trade Center housed ahotel, while Four, Five, Six, andSeven World Trade Center wereoffice buildings.

To the west of the Trade Center on the banksof the Hudson River is Battery Park City, analmost 30-acre complex of parks, gardens,plazas, residential apartments, and commercialbuildings. The World Financial Center is part ofBattery Park City and is composed of four high-rise office buildings and the Winter Garden atri-um. The World Financial Center stood directlyacross West Street from the World Trade Centerand suffered extensive damage on September 11.

Other properties discussed in the reportinclude the Church of St. Nicholas, locatedacross the street from Tower Two, and the 90West Street Building, a block south of the TradeCenter. To the north is the Barclay-Vesey Build-ing, across the street from Six World Trade Cen-ter and next door to Seven World Trade Center.St. Paul’s Chapel stands one block northeast ofthe Trade Center, facing Broadway (outside thescope of our map).

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On the morning of September 11, 2001, thebuildings of the World Trade Center

housed the records, archives, and libraries of atleast 500 corporate and commercial firms, non-profit organizations, and municipal, state, andfederal departments or agencies.

Works of art with an estimated value of$100 million graced walls, corridors, and gal-leries. On the 105th floor of Tower One soareda “museum in the sky” owned by the brokeragefirm Cantor Fitzgerald. According to pressaccounts, it housed nineteenth- and twentieth-century sculptures, paintings, and photographs,including drawings, casts, and sculptures by thegreat French artist Auguste Rodin.

In other parts of the buildings could be foundthe creations of Pablo Picasso, David Hockney,Roy Lichtenstein, and Ross Bleckner. Amongthe numerous corporate collections, Bank ofAmerica’s holdings included over 100 contem-porary works on paper, while the offices ofinvestment firm Fred Alger Management dis-played more than 45 piec es of photographic art.An art inventory for the Marriott Hotel inThree World Trade Center listed over 40 worksby artists such as Le Corbusier and Paul Klee.

The vast public spaces of the complex heldover 100 pieces of art, many special ly commis-sioned for the site. With works by suchrenowned contemporary artists as AlexanderCalder, Louise Nevelson, Joan Miro, andMasayuki Nagare, this public art collectionowned by the Port Authority of New York andNew Jersey was estimated to be worth between$8 and $10 million. The monumental outdoorsculptures in the plaza around the Twin Towers,such as the rotating Sphere for Plaza FountainbyFritz Koenig and Ideogramby James Rosati, hadbecome recognized symbols of the Trade Centeritself.

Five World Trade Center was home to theLower Manhattan Cultural Council, one of thelargest and oldest such organizations in the city.Its art collection, records, and archives docu-mented the council’s 30-year history of support

for the performing, visual, and media arts, aswell as its commitment to individual artists.Through the appropriately named World Viewand Studioscape programs, the council providedartists with workspace on the 91st and 92ndfloors of Tower One. On the morning of Sep-tember 11, these two studios contained over 400pieces of art, the work of 27 artists-in-residencesupported by the council.

While new art was created in studios in thesky, subterranean rooms beneath Six WorldTrade Center held objects crafted centuries ear-lier. Thousands of artifacts from an eighteenth-century African Burial Ground and millions ofobjects from a nineteenth-century working classneighborhood were stored and catalogued,along with photographic and computer recordsdocumenting their excavation. Discovered in1991 during construction of a new federalcourthouse and office building, the burialground, together with the remains of the com-munity known as Five Points, represented oneof the most important archaeological finds inthe history of Lower Manhattan. Under thedirection of the U.S. General Services Adminis-tration (GSA), a special program had beenestablished to provide the public with informa-tion about the cultural and historical signifi-cance of the site.

Across the street from the northwest cornerof the Trade Center was the landmark Barclay-Vesey Building, one of the city’s first and finestArt Deco skyscrapers. Built in the mid 1920s tohouse the New York Telephone Company, itnow served as headquarters for Verizon Com-munications. Its exterior façade, inspired byMayan architecture, was decorated in intricatedesigns of stone, copper, brass, and bronze. Inte-rior marble walls and floors were ornamentedwith bronze medallions, and a vaulted ceilingdisplayed murals tracing the evolution of humancommunications from Aztec runners to the firsttelephones.

One block northeast of the Trade Center wasSt. Paul’s Chapel, the oldest public building in

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Cataclysm

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continuous use on the islandof Manhattan and its only sur-viving colonial church. GeorgeWashington had prayed there,and above his pew hung an oilpainting of the Great Seal ofthe United States—the firstsuch rendition of the seal inAmerica’s history. Over thealtar was an ornamental designby Pierre L’Enfant, who laterplanned the city of Washing-ton, D.C., and in the church-yard could be found grave-stones carved in the earlyeighteenth century.

At 90 West Street, justsouth of the Trade Center,stood an elegant buildingwhose granite and terra cottafaçade was topped with a slop-ing green roof. Completed in1907 as a headquarters for shipping and railroadindustries, the West Street Building had beendesignated both a city and national landmark.An extensive renovation of the memorable struc-ture, designed by Cass Gilbert, one of the mostprominent American architects of the firstdecade of the twentieth century, was due to becompleted in 2001. Gilbert’s work on 90 WestStreet, followed by his design of the WoolworthBuilding and other early skyscrapers, would leadin time to the transformation of the entire Man-hattan skyline, culminating in the 1973 openingof the Twin Towers themselves.

Housed in the West Street Building were theglobal headquarters of the nonprofit HelenKeller International Foundation. Its archivescontained extensive scientific and medical textson the treatment and causes of preventableblindness, as well as photographs, historicalfiles, letters, and mementos belonging to theorganization’s namesake.

The tiny 35-foot-high Church of St. Nicholasstood at 155 Cedar Street between the West

Street Building and Tower Two. Serving theGreek Orthodox community in Lower Manhat-tan for over 80 years, the church’s most valuedpossessions were relics of fourth- and sixth-cen-tury saints, including St. Nicholas and St.Katherine. It also held finely crafted ecclesiasti-cal artifacts such as chalices, candelabra, crosses,and icons. Several of the icons had been a giftfrom the Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

In contrast to the little church was the45,000-square-foot Winter Garden, locatedbetween the Trade Center and the HudsonRiver. This enormous atrium, centerpiece of theWorld Financial Center, hosted approximately70 public art performances each year, plusnumerous cultural exhibitions. Its glass and steeldome enclosed a grove of palm trees almost fivestories high. With its polished tricolor marblefloors and distinctive staircase, the Winter Gar-den had been called one of the most beautifulpublic spaces in the city of New York.

On the morning of September 11, the area ofthe World Trade Center was a diverse mosaic of

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Historic FireboatsTwo national historic landmark fireboats, the John J. Harvey andthe Fire Fighter, played critical roles during the World Trade Cen-ter disaster, showing that preservation efforts may have unforeseenpractical benefits.

Built in 1931, the Harvey had a distinguished career as part ofthe New York City Fire Department until its retirement in 1994.The boat underwent a complete restoration after being purchasedin 1999 by a nonprofit organization and returned to full operationin 2000. On the morning of September 11, the boat and its all-volunteer crew rescued 150 people stranded near Battery Park andcarried them to safety. At the request of the Fire Department, itreturned to join the Fire Fighter in pumping the only water thenavailable to combat the World Trade Center fires.

The Fire Fighter, built in 1938, is s till in the service of the NewYork City Fire Department. In addition to supplying water to theTrade Center site on a round-the-clock basis, both fireboats alsoserved as a base of operations for search and rescue teams.

The Fire Fighterwas designated a National Historic Landmarkin 1989, and the John J. Harvey was placed on the State andNational Register of Historic Places in 2001.

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things historic and contemporary, sacred andsecular, massive and fragile. That mosaic wouldbegin to shatter at exactly 8:46 a.m. when thefirst of two jetliners struck the Twin Towers.

Lost Art In the end, it took less than a morning todestroy what had taken decades to build, yearsto create, and generations to preserve. Justbefore 10 a.m. Tower Two collapsed, followed at10:28 a.m. by Tower One. When the fires firstignited by the planes were finally extinguished,none of the Center’s other five buildings hadescaped ruin, and uncounted works of art, his-toric artifacts, archives, and libraries were lostforever.

The almost 3,000 people who died that dayincluded three librarians and artist Michael

Richards. In his studio on the 92nd floor ofTower One, Richards was at work on an addi-tion to his series of sculptures commemoratingthe famous World War II Tuskegee Airmen.Those who saw his final creation describe a life-size figure of the ar tist, dressed in the airmen’suniform, astride a falling meteor ablaze withflames.

The offices, records, and archives of Richards’sponsor, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Coun-cil, were totally demolished, along with 150 art-works in its collection. Valued at $650,000, all424 pieces of art in the Council’s tower studiosvanished when the buildings collapsed.

A complete inventory of the numerous corpo-rate art col lections lost on September 11 may beimpossible to compile because it is believedmany art inventories were destroyed along withthe Trade Center itself. AXA Art Insurance Cor-poration has estimated the value of artwork lostat $100 million. (AXA has estimated that it willitself pay out $17.2 million for the loss of threecorporate collections.) But a reliable listing ofeither the number or titles of the works them-selves, beyond a few examples in news accounts,does not seem to exist.

Of the public art, only Koenig’s 45,000-pound Sphere for Plaza Fountain survived some-what intact, its bronze globe battered, rippedopen, and filled with debris from the fallingbuildings. Portions of Calder’s World Trade Cen-ter Stabile, also known as Three Wings or BentPropeller, have been recovered, but at this writ-ing it is not known whether the sculpture canbe restored.

Along with Nagare’s black granite World TradeCenter Sculpture, Nevelson’s Skygate-New York,and Miro’s World Trade Center Tapestry, thepoignant World Trade Center Memorialcreatedby Elyn Zimmerman was destroyed. This com-memorative fountain had been built to honorthe six victims of the 1993 attack on the com-plex and stood over the site where the bombexploded. Shattered too was an informal memo-rial constructed in a basement by union workers

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This piece of a Rodin sculpture bearing his signa-ture was found at the World Trade Center site.

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who shared the same professions as the 1993victims.

The losses of September 11 also included aportion of the Broadway Theatre Archive’s35,000 photographs that captured greatmoments of the American stage and approxi-mately 40,000 negatives of photographs byJacques Lowe documenting the presidency ofJohn F. Kennedy. The negatives had been storedin a bank safe-deposit vault in Five World TradeCenter, also the headquarters of the LowerManhattan Cultural Council.

Another vault in Tower Two contained a rarecollection of antique rugs valued at over

$500,000. These 25 hand-woven kilims hadbeen passed as heirlooms through generations ofMuslim families from the Middle East, NorthAfrica, and Southeast Asia. Their ownerbelieved them so secure in their special climate-controlled vault that he had not insured them.

Libraries, Archives, and RecordsA review of the 2001-2002 edition of the Amer-ican Library Directory and the Special LibrariesAssociation’s membership list indicates the TradeCenter held at least 21 libraries, the majorityrelated to law or financial investment. However,it is believed many more corporate libraries

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The Seamen’s Church Institute Located just 851 yards east of the Trade Center at 241 Water Street at Peck Slip, the Seamen’sChurch Institute of New York and New Jersey (SCI) has served the needs of merchant mariners since1834. It also houses a unique col lection of maritime art and artifacts, such as nautical instruments,carved ship figureheads, marine paintings, and antique ship models. (A replica of Henry Hudson’sflagship Half Mooncommands pride of place over the Institute’s main staircase.) Other holdingsinclude prints of steamships by Currier and Ives and a collection of memorabilia relating towriter/shipmaster Joseph Conrad, along with letters in the author’s own hand.

Although covered by dust when the Twin Towers fell, the collection was otherwise undamaged.Staff immediately and unanimously voted to keep SCI open as a refuge—first for stranded evacueestrying to leave Manhattan and then for thousands of rescue workers. By the evening of September12, over 600 firefighters, police, and other relief personnel were being fed hot meals.

When electricity failed, food was cooked on SCI’s charcoal grills on the patio of its Seafarers’ Clubrestaurant. Food was supplied by neighbors, including seafood companies from the nearby FultonFish Market. When neighborhood supplies were exhausted, vans of food and volunteers coordinatedby the the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church began arriving from all over NewYork, including some of its finest restaurants.

Lining the street in front of SCI’s building were hundreds of boxes of bottled water, flashlights,work gloves, and hard hats. The lobby became a makeshift pharmacy and clean clothing supply areafor rescue workers. Maritime education c lassrooms were used by podiatrists and chiropractors totend to physical strains. Other rooms were made into quiet areas where exhausted workers couldrest. Grief counselors were available 24 hours a day.

SCI also played a key role in setting up and supplying relief centers at St. Paul’s Chapel and at theTrade Center site itself. For the next 12 days, volunteers provided food, comfort, and safety round-the-clock to countless weary rescue workers at SCI and Ground Zero.

A special exhibiti on en tit led DAZZLE & DRAB: Ocean Liners at War had been sched u led to openSeptember 19 in SCI’s public galle ry. The exhibit’s arc h i val photographs and nauti cal arti f a cts hada l ready been unc r a t ed before the Wo r ld Trade Center tr a g ed y. Among the me m o r a bilia was an auto-graph by Wi n st on Churc h i ll, whose words about the people of another country under attack mi g h twell be said of SCI’s staff and vo lunteers on and after September 11: “T h is was their finest hour.”

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were destroyed, given the number of law andinvestment firms in the complex.

Lost as well was the U.S. Customs ServiceRegional Library in Six World Trade Center andalmost the complete archives of the PortAuthority of New York and New Jersey, housedin Tower One.

A total of 60 nonprofit organizations, alongwith their records and archives, had offices inthe Trade Center. Primarily family foundationsand charitable trusts, their interests ranged frommountaineering to early childhood developmentto support for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Also buried in the debris were the archivesand computer records of the United Seamen’sService, a nonprofit agency that provides educa-tional, health, legal, and communications ser-vices for American and international seafarers.The affiliated American Marine Library Associa-tion, the only public library in the country char-tered to provide library services to merchantships, lost an entire storeroom of books destinedfor mariners throughout the world.

The library of the National DevelopmentalResearch Institutes (NDRI), housed in TowerTwo, was another victim of the devastation. Thenonprofit NDRI was founded to advance scien-tific knowledge in the areas of drug abuse, HIV,AIDS, and related areas of mental and publichealth.

In addition, 22 federal government depart-ments and agencies had offices in the Trade

Center complex. Included were the Secret Ser-vice, the Department of Transportation (CoastGuard), the Department of Defense, the PeaceCorps, the Department of Labor, the FederalMaritime Commission, the Treasury Depart-ment, and the Department of Housing andUrban Development. All official records andoffice documents, together with computer harddrives, were destroyed. Although certain rev-enue collection agencies, such as the InternalRevenue Service and the Customs Service, arerequired to have back-up documentation storedoff-site, the National Archives and RecordsAdministration presumes vast numbers of otherfederal records were simply lost. (The U.S.Attorney’s Office at 100 Church Street and theDepartment of Education offices at 75 ParkPlace were also damaged, but most of their doc-uments have survived.)

Damage to Landmark BuildingsWhen the massive towers fell, fire and debrisshattered the glass atrium of the beautiful Win-ter Garden and destroyed its eastern façade. AsTower Two collapsed, steel beams rippednumerous holes in the roof of the historic WestStreet Building and opened pathways for flam-ing debris. Fires burned on at least 14 floorswith such intensity it took a day and a half tobring them under control.

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The Winter Garden on September 27.

The top of 90 West Street, a 1907 buildingdesigned by Cass Gilbert, on September 27.

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It took only minutes for the inferno to con-sume the archives and records of the HelenKeller International Foundation. An estimated$4 million in equipment, records, and historicaldata was lost, including first editions of Keller’sworks, priceless photographs, and many of herown letters.

On the north side of the Trade Center com-plex, falling steel beams smashed the front ofthe landmark Barclay-Vesey Building and pene-trated an underground vault containing nearly4 million data and telephone lines. Communica-tions throughout Lower Manhattan werebrought to a standstill. Another hole, eight sto-ries high, was also ripped into the building’sfaçade. Later that day, the Barclay-Vesey’s eastside was crushed by the collapse of the neigh-

boring 47-story Seven WorldTrade Center. According to pressreports, as much as 42,000 gal-lons of diesel fuel were stored inthe Trade Center structure, cre-ating a fire so intense it ragedfor seven hours before the build-ing’s collapse.

With buildings falling inflames around it, the littleChurch of St. Nicholas wascrushed into ruins only a fewfeet high. Amazingly, St. Paul’sChapel, less than 100 yardsnortheast of the Trade Center,remained standing, althoughencrusted with layers of dust.

Clouds of debris and smokealso covered nearby historic

Trinity Church. Vibrations from the falling tow-ers literally sheared façades from sandstonegrave markers in the churchyard. Inches of pow-dery ash then rained down on the graves andmemorials of such historic figures as AlexanderHamilton, William Bradford, and Robert Ful-ton.

Vibrations from the collapse of the towersalso shook the foundations of nearby FederalHall National Memorial, built on the site ofWashington’s inaugural as the first President ofthe United States and meeting place of the newnation’s first Congress.

As a great gray cloud filled Lower Manhattanthat morning, it was feared many of the area’scultural and historical institutions were dam-aged beyond repair.

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A firefighter walks among the historic headstones covered in debrisat Trinity Church Cemetery on September 19.

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When the Heritage Emergency NationalTask Force began assessing the impact of

September 11, we soon realized it would takeyears to compile a complete inventory of lossesat the World Trade Center. In great part, this isdue to missing knowledge about the contents ofcorporate art col lections.

A complete evaluation is also impossiblebecause the rubble at the Trade Center contin-ues to yield discoveries. Immediately followingSeptember 11, for example, it was assumedCalder’s 15-ton stabile Bent Propeller had beendestroyed. But thanks to efforts of the artist’sgrandson, rescue workers were able to identifyand recover pieces of the red steel sculpture thatonce stood 25 feet high. Similarly, boxes con-taining artifacts from the African Burial Groundhave been unearthed beneath the debris, givinghope more may appear. (To date, there has beenno sign of the archaeological collection from theFive Points settlement, which included fragileceramics and glassware.)

Even months after the disaster, a historic pho-tographic archive owned by the Port Authorityof New York and New Jersey was miraculouslyrecovered. Up to 100,000 negatives dating back

to the 1920s were found under the debris ofTower One in conditions ranging from ruinedto pristine. This pictorial history of the entiremetropolitan transportation system includeddocumentation of the building of the GeorgeWashington Bridge, the Holland and Lincolntunnels, and the World Trade Center itself.

Unearthed safe-deposit boxes have yieldedpersonal property such as a First Communionmedal and a pocket watch handed downthrough four generations of the same family.Several small historic items have been retrievedfrom the Helen Keller International Foundation,including a charred, water-soaked 1905 editionof Keller’s autobiography. Two icons, one ofwood and another of paper, have been recoveredfrom the ruins of St. Nicholas Church, alongwith twisted pieces of a c andelabra and severalwax candles that had not completely melted inthe searing heat. Until all debris from the site isremoved and examined, we cannot know forcertain what else may have survived.

Beyond the Trade Center area, damage to cul-tural property in Lower Manhattan proved to bemuch less than originally feared, although oneinsurance adjustor believes thousands of art

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The New York Public Library’s New Amsterdam BranchThe New York Public Library has initiated an innovative project cal led the “Custodial Academy” toteach custodian trainees how to clean everything in a library from lights to desks to the books them-selves. Little did recent academy graduates realize how thoroughly their new knowledge would betested.

The Library’s New Amsterdam Branch, three blocks north of the World Trade Center, was closedto staff for weeks following September 11 as rescue teams worked in the area. After a s tructuralinspection of the building and air quality testing, staff finally returned in mid-November to find lay-ers of dust covering every surface.

A group of Custodial Academy graduates was sent to clean and reshelve individually each of theestimated 40,000 items in the library’s collection, including books, videocassettes, magazines, andcompact discs. In addition, floors were stripped and waxed, carpets steamed, windows and wallswashed, shelves, desks, and equipment cleaned, and the building’s air duct system flushed. The cus-todians also tackled 65 lighting fixtures, removing, wiping, and replacing each bulb by hand.

On top of the daunting cleanup, the branch lost its telecommunications system, whose circuits fedinto the network running under the historic building that housed Verizon Communications. Tele-phone, fax, and Internet services were disrupted from September 11 until November 26.

Thanks in large part to the work of the Custodial Academy graduates, the New AmsterdamBranch Library was reopened to the public on December 3, less than three months after the disaster.

Aftermath

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o b j e cts in neighboring buildings we re affect ed byd e b r is. In one example, a staff of 10 was need edto repair 289 art w o rks in a studio where a singlew i nd ow was left open on September 11. Howev-e r, many of the corporate colle cti ons in theWo r ld Fi n ancial Cen t e r, just west of the Tr a d eC en t e r, either surv i ved und a m a g ed or have beenclean ed or rest o red. Museums, libraries, anda rc h i ves also es ca p ed serious harm, althoughm any colle cti ons re q u i red exten s i ve cleani n g .

The Wo r ld Trade Center Do c u men t a ti on Ta s kFo rce, composed of over 20 New Yo rk organi z a-ti ons, det e r mi n ed there we re 72 hist o r i ca lre c o rds re p o s it o r i es, 21 libraries, 5 state agenc i es ,and 10 municipal gove r n ment agenc i es loca t edsouth of 14th Stre et. Except for re c o rds re p o s it o-r i es and libraries in the Trade Center it s el f, dam-age to colle cti ons in the surro u nding area wasnot wides p read. The most fre q u en t ly re p o rt edp ro b lem was soot or dust covering colle cti on s .

Records in several government offices alsosuffered water damage. This most commonlyresulted from the runoff of fire hoses or base-ment flooding when sump pumps failed due tothe lack of electrical power. In many cases,access to these records was limited for severalweeks following September 11 because of recov-ery efforts at the Trade Center or s tructuraldamage to buildings housing the records. As aresult, wet documents were subject to consider-able mold damage.

Only a few blocks south of the Trade Center,the extensive archives of Trinity Church wereunharmed. It is worth noting this repository is aunique resource on the history of New YorkCity. It includes not only traditional parishrecords of baptisms (from 1749), marriages(from 1750), and burials (from 1777), but alsoimportant corporate and real estate records. Theroyal charter establishing the parish in 1697granted the church a significant amount of landthat now comprises the city’s chief financial dis-trict. Records of the subsequent sale and devel-opment of parts of the original land grant pro-vide an unequaled perspective on the growth

and transformation of Lower Manhattan. Some documents dating back to the parish’s

founding in the late se venteenth century werecomposed on fragile parchment that could havebeen seriously damaged. Fortunately, due to lackof shelving space, much of the archives’ collec-tion was inside boxes on September 11. Theblack dust and ash that seeped through windowsand vents covered the storage containers but lefttheir precious contents relatively untouched.

Outdoor Sculptur eAs part of its assessment, the Task Force under-took an evaluation of nearly 200 pieces of out-door sculpture located south of 14th Street toBattery Park at the island’s southern tip. Wehave already discussed the destruction and dam-age to pieces at the Trade Center itself. Beyondits perimeter, however, there was remarkably lit-tle damage to outdoor artwork.

Over 90 pieces owned by the City of NewYork were reported in good condition, andalthough those in the vicinity of the Trade Cen-ter needed a thorough cleaning, no other prob-lems were reported. The U.S. General ServicesAdministration (GSA) found that works owned

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A rescue worker in the rubble near St. Paul’sChapel on September 14.

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by the federal government also suffered nomajor damage.

Mo st import ant among these are sculpturesd e c o r a ting the 1907 U.S. Cu stom House at thefoot of Broa d w a y. Des i g n ed by sculptor Dani elC h ester French, alle g o r i cal st a t u es re p res en ti n gthe con ti n ents of Asia, Ame r i ca, Eu rope, andA f r i ca adorn the building façade. Twel ve smalle rf i g u res by various sculptors depicting the grea tshipping powers of the anc i ent and modernw o r ld stretch along the upper corni ce. Each ofthe build i n g’s 44 Corinthian columns is toppedw ith a mariti me symbol of a dolphin or sea s h ell ,and figures re p res en ting the god Me rc u ry andWar and Pea ce st and atop the ro o f. GSA con-d u ct ed an immediate asses s ment of the land m a rkb u i lding and det e r mi n ed that all sculptures hads u rv i ved in good cond iti on. The agency decidedto delay a final cleaning of the works and otherGSA sculptures in the area until demoliti onw o rk at the Trade Center site is complet ed .

Overlooking Wall Street, a heroic-sized statueof George Washington stands on the front stepsof Federal Hall. Dedicated in 1883, the statue issaid to mark the exact spot where Washingtontook his oath of office as President. Just beforeSeptember 11, National Park Service custodianshad cleaned and waxed the sculpture, whichhelped protect it when dust, soot, and debrisexploded across the Financial District. Althoughthe statue had to be cleaned and waxed again inthe following weeks, it suffered no damage.

Similarly, no major problems affected private-ly owned sculpture in the area. This is evenmore remarkable when the wide range of mate-rials involved in these works is considered—bronze, copper, marble, sandstone, granite, rock,wood, brick, aluminum, steel, glass, concrete,neon, and tile. It remains to be seen whethercontaminants in the dust and air will causelong-term problems, but almost all the outdoorartwork in the area has been c leaned.

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Museum of J ewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust Just south of the World Trade Center in Battery Park City is the Museum of Jewish Heritage—ALiving Memorial to the Holocaust. Opened in 1997, the core exhibition includes more than 2,000photographs, 800 artifacts, and 24 original documentary films. Its mission is to educate the publicabout the twentieth-century Jewish experience before, during, and after the Holocaust.

On the morning of September 11, the second hijacked plane flew directly over the museum beforehitting Tower Two just blocks away. Sensing smoke from the burning towers, the building’s automat-ic fire alarm system began a computerized shutdown of outside air vents and other critical systems.But the entire automated circuit panel failed when all electrical power was cut off to the area.

With the Twin Towers ablaze in the background, museum engineers climbed to the roof and handcranked the remaining vents closed. Even as police warned of the towers’ collapse and ordered thearea evacuated, the engineers stayed to finish the job, turning off water valves as they left.

Because police and other rescue workers used the museum grounds as a staging area following theattack, only a few staff members were allowed to return for a brief inspection on September 13. Theyfound no damage to the building or its fragile collection—not even a trace of dust inside.

After covering the skylight and other window openings to lower the heat load and prevent damagefrom sunlight, staff was again forced to leave the area until electrical power was restored two weekslater. Although the climate control system was unable to operate, humidity inside the museum neverfluctuated more than two or three degrees the entire time the power was off. This was primarily dueto insulation provided by a moisture barrier of plywood and rubber sealant installed between thebuilding’s interior and exterior walls.

Even before September 11, museum staff had devoted considerable attention to emergency plan-ning and had conducted regular emergency drills. This, coupled with the building’s design, helpedkeep it safe from a disaster they could never have imagined.

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Workers at Battery Park City, wearing HAZ-MAT suits, began their cleanup the morning ofSeptember 12. Although encrusted with debris,all 14 outdoor pieces owned by the Battery ParkCity Authority survived undamaged. But per-haps their most remarkable find was a tempo-rary installation that stood just west of the TwinTowers. The 30-foot blue-painted steel sculptureby Roy Lichtenstein, entitled Modern Head, hadcome through explosions, fire, flying projectiles,and shattered glass without a trace of harm.Ironically, the piece suffered minor damage inthe following days when used as a bulletinboard by recovery teams and an inadvertentparking place for a piece of rescue equipment.

Koenig’s Sphere, perhaps now the area’s mostfamous outdoor sculpture, has been cleaned andreinstalled in Battery Park. On March 11, 2002,it was rededicated in its damaged state as amemorial to the victims of September 11.

Historic BuildingsOne hundred seven individual properties southof Canal Street have landmark status from theNew York City Landmarks Commission. Ofthese, 65 are in the 1.5 square mile area at thesouthern tip of Manhattan in the vicinity of theTrade Center. Twenty-three are also li sted onthe National Register of Historic Places. OnSeptember 11, only two historic structures suf-fered major damage: the West Street Building at90 West Street and the Barclay-Vesey Buildingat 140 West Street.

We have already discussed the devastationsustained by these landmarks that stood oneither side of the Twin Towers. Work on theBarclay-Vesey Building began immediately afterSeptember 11 because it housed the major tele-phone communications system for the city.However, another two years of effort will beneeded before the landmark Art Deco sky-scraper is returned to its former glory.

A $25 million restoration of the West StreetBuilding was nearing completion in September2001. As a result of the tragedy, the landmark

will now require between $50 million and $100million in estimated repairs.

St. Paul’s Chapel. In 1776 when a great fireswept New York and destroyed 500 houses, St.Paul’s Chapel was one of the few buildingssaved. It became a refuge for city residents madehomeless by that tragedy. History seemed torepeat itself 225 years later when the building,located less than 100 yards from the TradeCenter, remained standing amid the devastationof September 11.

At noon on September 14, churches through-out New York tolled their bells in memory ofthose who had died three days earlier. Inside therestricted access zone and without electricity, St.Paul’s was not expected to participate in thememorial. But two church property managersclimbed the wooden tower overlooking thesmoldering ruins. While one held a flashlight,the other struck the bells 12 times with a stee lpipe. Below them, rescue workers turned towardthe steeple and placed their hard hats over theirhearts.

From September 11 to this writing, St. Paul’shas served as a refuge for rescue and cleanupworkers. Until their work is finished, completerepair of the building will be postponed. How-ever, the oil painting of the Great Seal of theUnited States has been sent away for cleaningand repair, and the 14 Waterford crystal chande-liers in the nave and galleries have been dustedand polished. Ash and debris, including piecesof twisted metal 12 feet long, have beenremoved from the historic churchyard, andstone conservators have assessed and cleanedgravestones and monuments that date back to1704.

Trinity Chur ch. St. Paul’s is part of historicTrinity Parish, whose headquarters is a fewblocks south of the Trade Center. The presentTrinity Church is the third structure built onthe site. (The first church was destroyed in thegreat fire of 1776.) Consecrated in 1846, the

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LibraryAt 9:38 a.m. on September 11, 2001, an Ameri-can Airlines 757 crashed onto a helicopter land-ing pad on the west side of the Pentagon. Thedisintegrating jet then plowed through thebuilding’s outer three rings of offices, killing189 people and setting off a fireball that rose50 feet in the air. When the plane finally halted,its nose rested on one of the back walls of thePentagon library. Chief Army Librarian AnnParham suffered facial burns when fire explodedbehind her, but she and all other library person-nel managed to escape the inferno.

The library contained more than 500,000books and documents, and its historical collec-tions dated back to army regulations and generalorders issued in the early 1800s. The originalWar Department library had been established inPhiladelphia in 1795 and was later moved toWashington. As years passed, its collection wasdispersed among approximately 23 other insti-tutions before the Pentagon library opened in1944. Over the next 50 years, staff had man-aged to obtain copies of almost all documents inthe original collection.

Used primarily by Pentagon policymakers andhistorians, the library’s current holdings includemilitary and other government documents andrecords. Because new documents and regulationsare constantly being issued, much of this part ofthe collection was not fully catalogued. Addingto the librarians’ anxiety after September 11 wasthe knowledge that as part of the federal govern-ment, the collection was not insured.

Fed by jet fuel, the fire at the Pentagonburned for almost a week. Recovery effortscould not be completed until the flames wereextinguished, delaying assessment of the library’scondition. The area was then declared a crimescene, furthering the delay. When library per-sonnel were finally allowed entry, they had towear HAZMAT suits for protection against con-taminants.

Because the ventilation system had been shutdown to contain the fire, the library had beenwithout air conditioning for several weeks. Thelibrarians found green, black, pink, and redmold growing in large areas. It had eatenthrough walls, spread inside walls, and snakedaround ceiling tiles, doors, and windowsills.Because of the dangerous pink and red molds,the whole library area was considered toxic.

In addition to the mold, soot covering largeareas was found to contain hydrochloric acid. Itdamaged computers, printers, and servers andate into the wood of the circulation desk andother furniture. Built 50 years ago, the Pentagonroof contained asbestos that fell onto parts ofthe collection when part of the ceiling collapsed.Numerous books covered with asbestos had tobe discarded, although it proved possible todecontaminate other parts of the collection.

The Pentagon

Left, mildew on walls. Right, some of the danger-ous mold in a Navy office.

Members of the Department of Defense JointRecovery Team taking historical property out ofthe Pentagon.

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Located on the first floor, the library alsosuffered water damage as the runoff from firehoses seeped from the floors above. Water filledthe microfiche area and caused numerous film-strips to stick together. The library’s compactshelving could not be used because electricityhad been cut off, and electrical connections hadshorted out. Smoke damage was also wide-spread.

A private disaster recovery company wascontracted to help stabilize the collections. Anestimated 82 boxes of books were saved byfreeze-drying, but other volumes had to bedestroyed. These restoration efforts, which cost$500,000, were ultimately successful in savingabout 99 percent of the book collection. Fortu-nately, no historical materials housed in thelibrary were harmed.

Access to the library’s holdings was severelyrestricted during the recovery efforts. Thisproved problematic because the Department ofDefense was planning military operations forAfghanistan, and the library contained muchinformation related to the Soviet invasion inthe 1980s, which was important to militaryplanners. Use of the collection, however, washampered due to damage.

Although reconstruction of the Pentagon isproceeding ahead of schedule, the library is notexpected to return to permanent quarters for

Jennifer Castro of the U.S. Marine Corps Muse-ums Branch examines a print in the damaged areaof the Pentagon.

several years. In the meantime, the collectionhas been moved to a temporary site and staffhas resumed limited service to Pentagon person-nel.

ArtworkIn addition to the library wreckage, 24 works inthe art collections of the Army, Navy, Air Force,and Marine Corps were de stroyed. Another 40pieces sustained substantial damage. Becausenone of the works were insured, there is no esti-mate of their total value. But as Army art cura-tor Renee Klish pointed out in an interviewwith the Los Angeles Times, the importance ofthe military collections is historic, not monetary.

Eight paintings owned by the Army’s Centerfor Military History were lost. They included a1967 work entitled O.D. One Eachthat depict-ed a U.S. soldier in Viet Nam with duffel bag,helmet, sleeping bag, and the rest of his kit, allpainted in olive drab brushstrokes. (The O.D.of the title refers to olive drab in the paintingand soldier’s equipment.) Another painting, TheKnucklebusters, showed the struggle of three sol-diers in camouflage repairing an M-1 tank.

Of the approximately 200 works in theNavy’s collection at the Pentagon, one sufferedmajor smoke damage, about 40 had minorsmoke damage, and two are unaccounted for.

Ten Air Force paintings, all of aircraft, werecompletely burned.

Seven pieces in the Marine Corps collection,including lithographs, paintings, and a print,were destroyed. Seven other works were dam-aged. Marine art curator Jack Dyer has aptlydescribed all the artwork lost on September 11as “cultural casualties.”

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Neo-Gothic building is on the National Registerof Historic Places and houses a museumdisplaying the original royal charter that createdthe parish in 1697.

The church’s nave windows contain some ofthe oldest stained glass in the United States, andits spire once dominated the skyline of LowerManhattan. On September 11, vibrations fromthe collapse of the Twin Towers shattered win-dowpanes and damaged gravestones in the his-toric churchyard. A thick layer of dust anddebris covered the church, both inside and out.

A cleaning crew of 200 worked an estimated2,000 hours to scrub, sometimes twice, everyinch of the interior with chemically treatedsponges. Stone conservators labored on thesandstone exterior as well as grave markers andmonuments in the churchyard. By November 4,the church was ready to reopen.

But Trinity’s organ, one of the largest in NewYork, remains silent. It was in use when theplanes hit the Trade Center and its pipesabsorbed pulverized concrete and steel when thebuildings collapsed. According to Trinity’sorganist, in the ensuing bedlam “the last thinganyone thought was to turn off the organ.” Hecited a Boston Globearticle describing some ofthe dust as “caustic as drain c leaner, because ofthe high concentration of cement dust, an alka-line substance.” The instrument, originally builtin 1846, sustained extensive damage and a deci-sion is pending on whether to repair or rebuildit. Proper cleaning would require pipes to beindividually removed, washed, and air-dried, nosmall task since the largest pipe is 32 feet long.

Federal Hall National Memorial. A blockeast of Trinity Church, the Federal HallNational Memorial stands on the site of thenation’s first Capitol building. The currentbuilding was constructed from 1834-1842 as acustoms house, and it was here the FederalReserve System was established in 1913. Anexample of Greek Revival architecture popularin the mid-nineteenth century, the solid marble

and granite building was declared a NationalMonument in 1939.

In 1930, one of its walls was underpinned toaccommodate construction of a subway line.Ten years later, structural settlement was firstnoticed. By the 1980s, a lateral crack in thesolid marble stonework began to appear on thefloors and walls on the west side of the build-ing’s interior. Vibrations on September 11 sub-stantially widened this crack and caused addi-tional damage throughout the building.

Seismic monitoring registered the Twin Tow-ers’ collapse as a significant seismic event withan epicenter about two blocks from FederalHall. It also showed that energy waves duringthe collapse lasted much longer than a normalearthquake. Unlike newer buildings constructedto sway during a quake, the solid marble andgranite of Federal Hall remained rigid, resultingin considerable structural cracking.

Repair of the foundation and correction ofstructural problems will require the partial dis-mantling of the steps and colonnade facing WallStreet. The National Park Service, which main-tains the building, recently received $16.5 mil-lion in federal aid for the necessary repairs.Although the building is in no danger of imme-diate collapse, the Park Service hopes to beginextensive renovation efforts within a year.

Buildings spared damage. Except for needingcleaning and minor repairs, other landmarkstructures in Lower Manhattan wereundamaged. These include Fraunces Tavern,where in 1783 Washington bid farewell to histroops; Castle Clinton, first built in 1807 as afort to protect New York during the Napoleonicwars; and the U.S. Custom House, described asone of the most splendid Beaux Arts buildingsin New York.

Highlighting the vulnerability of the rich his-toric district of Lower Manhattan after Septem-ber 11, the World Monuments Fund added thearea to a li st of the world’s most endangeredsites.

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In October 2001, the Heritage EmergencyNational Task Force began developing a sur-

vey of cultural property institutions in LowerManhattan. We wanted not only to assess thecondition of their col lections after September 11but also to evaluate how prepared the institu-tions had been to deal with any type of emer-gency. We hoped to document emergency man-agement efforts that had proved most beneficial,as well as identify resources needed to copemore effectively with future disasters.

In designing a survey instrument, we decidedto focus primarily on collections care and emer-gency preparedness issues. Not only is theexpertise of the Task Force concentrated in thesetwo areas, but other surveys of cultural institu-tions were in progress. We knew additional con-cerns, such as economic impact, were alreadybeing addressed, and we did not want to dupli-cate efforts.

We were also aware we were asking the coop-eration of many organizations whose staffs hadpersonally witnessed the tragedy and might beexperiencing after-effects of the trauma. There-fore, we believed we would gain more usefulinformation by limiting the number and scopeof our questions.

Survey forms were sent to 122 museums,libraries, archives, and exhibit spaces south of14th Street in Lower Manhattan. (We alsoincluded a handful of Staten Island institutionsto determine whether the debris cloud hadthreatened any of their collections. We arepleased to report it did not.) Responses werereceived from 57 institutions, for an overallresponse rate of 46 percent.

Not every respondent answered every ques-tion. Unless otherwise noted, response rates forthe questions discussed were 90 percent or bet-ter. Non-respondents were counted as such andnot included as “yes” or “no,” so percentagesmay not add up to 100 for some questions. Foractual responses, see the complete survey resultsin the appendix.

Based on survey results, coupled with exten-

sive follow-up interviews with institutions closeto the Trade Center site, we have developed aseries of recommendations that are listed sepa-rately on page 20. Before addressing them, how-ever, an analysis of our findings is provided.

Physical Damage and EmergencyPreparednessThe survey’s most encouraging finding was aminimum of physical damage to collecting insti-tutions surrounding the World Trade Center.Ninety-three percent of the respondents report-ed no structural damage to their buildings, and80 percent reported their collections were nei-ther damaged nor soiled.

Although most organizations escaped seriousdamage, it is clear that less than half were mini-mally prepared for any type of emergency. Only46 percent had a written emergency responseplan and just 47 percent had an emergencycommunications strategy. Even fewer institu-tions, 42 percent, had staff trained in disasterresponse procedures.

Sixty percent of institutions reported theyhad an emergency evacuation plan, a numberthat should have been much higher becausesuch plans are required by all municipal firecodes. One respondent commented their organi-zation followed the building management’s evac-uation directive. It is possible this explanationapplied to other cases and would help clarifywhy more institutions did not report the mostbasic type of emergency plan.

Not surprisingly, an increased interest inemergency planning was reflected in surveyresponses from institutions most directly affect-ed by the disaster. Sixty-seven percent said theyintended to create new emergency plans or reviseexisting ones in light of the events of September 11.Sixty-eight percent said their staffs would benefitfrom emergency management training.

Several respondents commented that no planwould have been adequate for the circumstancesof that day. Certainly, no amount of planningcould have stopped a steel projectile from

Challenge

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smashing through windows and shattering anart object on a wall in the World Financial Cen-ter, as reportedly happened. But institutions justblocks away from the Trade Center escaped seri-ous damage, in great part because certain basicresponses were put into immediate action.Despite the suddenness of the disaster, 40 percentof respondents said there was time to put at leastpart of their plans into effect.(However, only 53percent of total respondents answered this ques-tion.)

Fifty-six percent of respondents said theirbuildings were evacuated in an orderly way.Forty-six percent closed or sealed windows orother openings, and 33 percent were able toturn off air intake systems. These simple steps ofsealing openings and turning off ventilation sys-tems were the most important actions thatcould have been taken to protect collectionsfrom the catastrophe that followed. In mostcases, these ac tions were probably initiated inresponse to smoke and fire when the planes firststruck the Twin Towers. But such preventivemeasures proved invaluable when clouds of dustand debris spilled over Lower Manhattan.

Disruptions in OperationsSurvey responses showed that institutions experi-enced far fewer problems protecting their collectionsthan coping with the aftermath of the disaster.

As events unfolded on September 11, the cityordered all businesses south of 14th Streetclosed for three days. Seventy-eight percent ofsurvey respondents reported their institutionswere shut down. In most cases, they reopened assoon as the city permitted. However, othersremained closed for longer periods. As alreadyshown, there was minimal damage to collectionsand the buildings that housed them. In the vastmajority of cases, the closings were due toevents outside the institutions themselves, pri-marily the rescue and recovery efforts that iso-lated much of Lower Manhattan and the failureof electrical and communications systems.

Eighty percent of respondents also reported

interruptions in communications. A full 82 per-cent of these experienced problems with tele-phone/fax lines, and 71 percent had problemswith e-mail. Immediately following the disaster,the disruption meant many institutions did notknow the location of all their employees. Thiswas further complicated by the fact that manyhome telephone or e-mail li sts were in inaccessi-ble buildings.

Disruptions or delays in postal service orother mail delivery services were reported by 77percent of respondents. One of the main postalfacilities in Lower Manhattan is located justnorth of the Trade Center and was within therestricted security perimeter immediately fol-lowing the disaster. When mail-processing pro-cedures were re-established, delivery was com-plicated by traffic restrictions throughout LowerManhattan. Even trucks with proper credentialssometimes took half a day just to enter the areaaround the Trade Center.

The traffic problem further slowed certainrecovery efforts for institutions in the area. Forexample, engineers at the Museum of JewishHeritage had to clean existing charcoal filtersbefore the ventilation system could be restarted.Normally, they would have just ordered newones. But given the lengthy delivery delays, theengineers decided to clean the old filters ratherthan postpone the museum’s reopening whilewaiting for replacements. The lesson learned,they said, was to keep more emergency supplieson hand.

This lesson would seem to apply to others inthe survey as well. While 73 percent had firstaid supplies, other kinds of emergency materialswere sadly lacking. Forty-three percent reportedthey had emergency communications equip-ment, but a mere 16 percent had the necessarybackup for damage assessment and only 14 per-cent had materials to stabilize the environment.Even fewer (10 percent) had supplies or equip-ment needed to salvage collections.

Thirty percent of respondents reported thatstaff had to be temporarily relocated following

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the disaster. In almost all cases, this seemedrelated more to the shutdown of electricalpower and telephone lines rather than to struc-tural damage of buildings.

Sixty-seven percent reported public visitationdecreased following September 11. In great partthis was due to restricted access and traffic dis-ruptions in Lower Manhattan. Concerns aboutsafety and air quality probably contributed tothe reduction in visits. But se veral respondentsmade a connection between disruption in com-munications and attendance. For example, ifpeople could not reach a museum by te lephone,they assumed it was closed.

Although the survey did not set out to exam-ine economic impact, many comments fromrespondents showed it to be a primary concern.This issue is tied to the drop in public atten-dance because many organizations, such asmuseums, depend on admission fees. Through-out the city, attendance at cultural institutionsdeclined as much as 60 percent in monthsimmediately following the disaster. A citywidesurvey conducted by the New York City ArtsCouncil estimated that losses to cultural organi-zations between September 11 and September30, 2001, totaled $23 million.

Most emergency management resources forthe cultural property field have concentrated oncollections care. As the survey showed, collec-tions in Lower Manhattan survived September11 in fairly good condition, but institutionsfaced far greater challenges carrying out opera-tions. Continuity of operations plans used bybusiness and government are designed toaddress many of the issues just discussed. Ourfindings suggest the most effective emergencyplans address both the needs of collections andoperational disruptions common to any disaster.

Documenting CollectionsOne of the survey’s most important findings wasthat only 60 percent of respondents had a currentcollections catalogue or inventory. Of those withcurrent catalogues (less than five years old), only

41 percent described them as complete. Forty-six percent of the catalogues or inventoriesincluded photographic records, but only onecontained photographs of the complete collec-tion.

Of significant concern, the survey found morethan half (53 percent) of the respondents kept nooff-site record of their inventory. Had the destruc-tion of September 11 spread more widely, manycollecting institutions would have been left withno complete record of what had been lost.

Many survey respondents clearly recognizedthe danger they had escaped. When asked todescribe the most important elements a post-September 11 emergency plan should include,respondents most commonly cited creating orupdating their inventories and keeping copies ina secure, off-site location.

Several survey respondents said priority wasnot often given to inventories because there isinsufficient funding for such efforts.

Communicating with Emergency ResponseAgenciesThe survey revealed that most institutionslacked a c lear understanding of how governmentdisaster support is structured. Only 53 percentsaid they were familiar with any source of gov-ernment financial assistance for recovery beforeSeptember 11. Sources most often recognizedwere the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency (FEMA) and city or state governmentagencies. Only 30 percent of respondents citedthe Small Business Administration (SBA).

Forty-four percent of the institutions saidthey were seeking government help for recoveryfollowing September 11. Sixty percent of thosewere turning to city or state government agen-cies, and 40 percent were seeking aid fromFEMA. However, many institutions did notseem to understand that private nonprofits mustapply for an SBA loan before approachingFEMA for the remainder of the damages.

Only 12 percent of respondents hadapproached SBA. We initially attributed this

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response to the fact that few institutions report-ed physical damage to their property and toconfusion about Economic Injury DisasterLoans (EIDLs) designed to help small compa-nies pay bills or meet normal operating expens-es. In follow-up interviews, a number of institu-tions said they believed they were ineligible forSBA aid because they were nonprofit organiza-tions. In fact, SBA Physical Disaster Loans areavailable for museums, libraries, historical soci-eties, churches, and private universities of anysize, and EIDLs have now been expanded tohelp certain nonprofits in New York and Vir-ginia affected by the events of September 11.

Dialogue between the emergency manage-ment and cultural heritage fie lds needs to beincreased. Collaborative efforts at the federallevel have begun to produce results that shouldbe more widely duplicated at the state and locallevels. One example of a successful cooperativeproject is Resources for Recovery: Post-Disaster Aidfor Cultural Institutions, produced by the TaskForce with the support of FEMA, SBA, and theNational Endowment for the Arts. This booklet

outlines the kinds of disaster assistance availableto cultural institutions and how to apply for aid.

Increased communications between the emer-gency management and cultural property fieldscan also lead to a c learer understanding of theirrespective priorities in a disaster. For this reason,the Task Force strongly encourages the establish-ment of dialogue and affiliations before anemergency occurs.

Even after a disaster, communication betweenthe two communities can have a profoundimpact, as evidenced by the story of the recov-ery of parts of the Calder stabile Bent Propeller.At first assumed totally destroyed when theTrade Center towers collapsed, over 35 percentof the steel structure has been found. Shortlyafter September 11, the artist’s grandson,Alexander Rower, began distributing fliers witha picture of the stabile and a short writtendescription to recovery workers. Once the work-ers knew what to look for, they started to findpieces. But it is not known how much ofCalder’s work may have been hauled away asscrap metal before his grandson arrived.

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The following recommendations are made inlight of the findings just described.

Although the events of September 11 werecaused by an unprecedented act of terror, wefound that standard, proven emergency manage-ment plans and responses turned out to be themost effective way of dealing with the disaster.

In terms of emergency management capabili-ties, we believe the survey results from LowerManhattan to be fairly representative of the col-lections field as a whole. Therefore, the follow-ing recommendations can be applied to a varietyof institutions and emergencies.

The Task Fo rce re c o g ni zes that pro t e cti n gh u m an life is the most import ant res p on s i bi l it yof colle cting instit u ti ons and must be given theh i g h est priority in eme r g ency plans, tr a i ning, anddialogue with eme r g ency man a g e ment agenc i es .

• Collecting institutions should integrateemergency management into all parts oftheir planning, budget, and operations.

• Emergency management plans shouldaddress both protection of collections andcontinuity of operations.

• Emergency management training should beprovided to all staff of collecting institu -tions, not just those charged with specificresponsibilities such as security or engineer -ing.

• Priority should be gi ven to maintainingcomplete and updated collections invento -ries and to placing such records in off-sitestorage. These efforts should be incorporat -ed into emergency plans and should be con-sidered essential to disaster mitigation.

• Emergency management agencies and col -lecting institutions should maintain anongoing dialogue aimed at strengtheningaffiliations between the two communities.

We believe implementation of these recom-mendations does not rest solely with institu-tions. Professional associations, governmentagencies, and private foundations that serve thecollections field have a special responsibility toensure these organizations are better prepared toface any type of disaster.

Recommendations

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This report began with a description ofthings lost at the World Trade Center on

September 11. In concluding, we would like tobriefly describe the cultural property universethat survives. It ranges in size from the Smith-sonian’s National Museum of the American Indi-an’s 20,000 square-foot exhibit space to theArchive of Black American Cultural History,operated out of its founder’s loft apartment.

Surviving collections include sailing ships,musical instruments, antique furniture, modernart, traditional crafts, historic documents, classicfilms, instruments of finance, legal records, andrecordings of contemporary music, to list onlysome. Subjects encompass religion, real estatetransactions, folklore, installation and perfor-mance art, firefighting, dance, the immigrantexperience in America, monetary policy, poetry,genealogy, and the prevention of cruelty to chil-dren, to name only a sampling.

Because their names are just as varied as thecollections, it is worth listing some of the insti-

tutions: the Asian American Arts Center, theNational Museum of the American Indian, theSkyscraper Museum, the Museum for AfricanArt, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the NewWorld Art Center, the Museum of AmericanFinancial History, the Museum of Chinese inthe Americas, the New Amsterdam Branch ofthe New York Public Library, the UkrainianMuseum, and the Ellis Island Museum of Immi-gration.

These names should help us remember thatalthough the World Trade Center was destroyedon September 11, 2001, the nation that built itwas not. America’s aspirations and achievementsare reflected and preserved in collections held inpublic trust by museums, libraries, archives, andsimilar organizations. That alone is reason toensure the institutions caring for those collec-tions are prepared to face the next disaster,whenever and however it may come.

Epilogue

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Interviews (by telephone or in person)Broadway Theatre Archive

CityLore

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Historic House Trust of New York City

Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority

Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems/RobertF. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service/New York University

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memori-al to the Holocaust

National Archives and Records Administration

National Park Service

National Trust for Historic Preservation

New York City Art Commission

New York City Fire Museum

New York City Landmarks Commission

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation &Historic Preservation

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Seamen’s Church Institute

Silverstein Properties

Society for Historical Archaeology

Trinity Church Archives

Trinity Church Wall Street

U.S. Army Center for Military History

U.S. Department of Defense/Pentagon Library

U.S. Department of the Navy/Naval HistoricalCenter

U.S. General Services Administration

U.S. Marine Corps Museums Branch

Public Forum DiscussionsDean McKinney, BMS Catastrophe, Inc.

(DC/Special Libraries Association Seminar;Computers in Libraries 2002 03/14/02)

Dietrich von Frank, President & CEO, AXAArt Insurance Corporation (International

Foundation for Art Research Seminar2/28/02)

Gregory Smith, Director, Cunningham LindseyInternational (IFAR Seminar)

Jerri Knihnicki, Chief, Research & InformationServices, Pentagon Library (DC/SLA Seminar03/14/02)

Saul Wenegrat, Former Director, Art Program,Port Authority of New York and New Jersey(IFAR Seminar)

Other SourcesAmerican Association of Museums

artnewsonline

BMS Catastrophe, Inc.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Guardian

iCan News Service

The Los Angeles Times

Museum of the City of New York

National Public Radio

New York Historical Records Advisory Board

The New York Public Library

New York State Archives

New York State Library

The New York Times

New York Daily News

PhiladelphiaWeekly.com

Protect & Preserve Web site

Rebuilding Wall Street (Web newsletter)

Reuter

Smithsonian American Art Museum/Inventoryof American Sculpture

Special Libraries Association

Trinity News

USA TODAY

U.S. Small Business Administration

The Wall Street Journal

The Washington Post

A List of Sources

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Alice Austen House Museum

American Craft Council

American International Group Archives

Anthology Film Archives

Archive of Contemporary Music

Art in General

Artists Space

Asian American Arts Center

Audrey Cohen College Library

Castle Clinton National Monument

Chaim Gross Studio Museum

Children’s Museum of the Arts

College of Insurance Library

Cunningham Dance Foundation Archives

Dia Center for the Arts

Dieu Donné Papermill

Eldridge Street Project

Federal Hall National Memorial

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Archives

Franklin Furnace Archive

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Hatch-Billops Collection/Archive of BlackAmerican Cultural History

Hebrew Union College Library

Helen Keller International

Henry Street Settlement/Louis Abrons ArtsCenter

Historic Richmond Town

J.P. Morgan Chase Archives

Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Merchant’s House Museum

Museum of African Art

Museum of American Financial History

Museum of Chinese in the Americas

Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memori-al to the Holocaust

Museum of the American Piano

National Archives and Records Administra-tion/Northeast Region

National Museum of the AmericanIndian/Smithsonian Institution

New Museum of Contemporary Art

New York City Department of Records & Infor-mation Services

New York City Fire Museum

New York City Municipal Reference & ResearchCenter

New York Legislative Service, Inc. Library

New York Public Library—New AmsterdamBranch

New York Society for the Prevention of Crueltyto Children Archives

New York University Elmer Holmes BobstLibrary

Parsons School of Design Archives

Poetry Project

Seamen’s Church Institute of New York & NewJersey

Skyscraper Museum

Snug Harbour Cultural Center

South Street Seaport Museum

Staten Island Children’s Museum

Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences

Statue of Liberty National Monument/ EllisIsland Museum of Immigration

Trinity Church Archives

Trinity Church Museum

Ukrainian Museum

23

Institutions Responding to the Sur vey

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Total number of surveys sent: 122Total number of respondents: 57 (not all respondents answered every question)

Part I: Institutional Information

1. How would you best describe your institution?10 archive 9 historic site 25 museum0 historical society 9 library 12 other

2. What type of organization are you?3 municipal 43 nonprofit 501(c)(3) 4 university0 state 6 federal 2 corporate

3. What was your institution’s annual operating budget for fiscal year 2000?17 under $500,000 15 $500,000 - $2M 22 Over $2M

4. Do you have staff responsible for the preservation/conservation of your collection? 32 Yes 21 NoIf yes, please indicate status: 22 full time 10 part time 1 FTE

Part II: Impact of Events of September 11, 2001

1. Was there structural damage to your building? 4 Yes 53 No

2. Was there damage to your structure’s historic features? 7 Yes 50 No

3. Was there damage to building systems? 15 Yes 42 NoIf yes, please check systems that sustained damage:7 electrical 8 climate control 3 plumbing5 lighting 5 other: air intakes, roof, phones

4. Were communications interrupted? 45 Yes 11 NoIf yes, please check communications method & length of interruption:37 telephone/fax for how long32 E-mail/Internet for how long35 postal service/delivery services for how long

5. Were portions of your collection destroyed? 2 Yes 55 NoIf yes, list number of items or approximate percentage of total collection

6. Were portions of your collection damaged or soiled? 11 Yes 46 NoIf yes, list number of items or approximate percentage of total collection

7. Was damage/soiling due to (please check all that are appropriate):4 falling debris 12 dust 1 fire4 smoke 0 moisture 0 hazardous materials3 soot 2 vibrations 2 other: gases, all of the above

8. Were there subsequent problems resulting from 9/11 events that have affectedthe condition of your collection? 16 Yes 39 No

If yes, please check all that are appropriate:10 air quality 14 dust/debris 0 water/flooding 0 mold/mildew 1 insects/rodents 0 theft/vandalism 0 structural damage 3 other: gases, filter

Appendix: The Survey

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9. Did the events of 9/11/01 force your institution to close? 44 Yes 12 NoIf yes, how long before staff could return from 1 day to 3 months

10. Were any of your staff temporarily relocated? 17 Yes 39 No

11. Were all or parts of your collection relocated? 3 Yes 54 No

12. Since 9/11/01, has public visitation to your institution decreased? 38 Yes 15 No

Part III: Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Reco very

1. Before 9/11/01, did your institution have an emergency evacuation plan? 34 Yes 22 No

2. Before 9/11/01, did your institution have a written emergency response plan? 26 Yes 29 No

3. Before 9/11/01, were any of your staff trained in disaster response procedures? 24 Yes 30 No

4. Before 9/11/01, did your institution have a communications strategy to coordinate response in the event of an emergency? 27 Yes 28 No

5. On 9/11/01, was there time to implement your institution’s response plans? 23 Yes 7 Noa) Was the building evacuated in an orderly way? 32 Yes 5 Nob) Were air intake systems turned off? 19 Yes 16 Noc) Were building systems shut down? 17 Yes 18 Nod) Were collections covered or otherwise protected ? 13 Yes 25 Noe) Were doors, windows and other openings closed or sealed ? 26 Yes 12 Nof) Were articles from your collection removed to a safer location? 3 Yes 35 Nog) Were local emergency services involved? 10 Yes 29 No

6. Please check emergency supplies and equipment on hand on 9/11 to meet the following needs:42 first aid 8 stabilization of environment 9 damage assessment23 communication 17 documentation for insurance 6 salvage of collection10 protection of collection

7. Did your institution have a current collection catalogue (5 years or less)? 34 Yes 20 NoIf yes, was catalogue 14 complete 16 partial

8. Did your catalogue include a photographic record? 24 Yes 28 NoIf yes, was photographic record 1 complete 22 partial

9. Were copies of the catalogue stored off-site? 18 Yes 30 No11 on computerized disk 5 on hard copy

10. Did your institution have insurance coverage? 41 Yes 7 NoIf yes, was it 11 total loss 12 partial coverage 3 difference in value

11. Did coverage include repair of damaged items to pre-September 11 state? 13 Yes 19 No

12. Has your insurance company been notified that a claim will be filed? 10 Yes 28 No

13. Was a damage assessment of your institution’s structure conducted? 23 Yes 25 No

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14. Was a damage assessment of all or part of your collection conducted? 20 Yes 25 No

15. Was the damage documented? 11 Yes 20 Noa) was a photographic record made? 5 Yes 10 Nob) were notes and/or voice recordings made? 9 Yes 7 Noc) were records kept of contacts with insurance and other investigators? 6 Yes 9 Nod) were records kept of staff decisions on retrieval/salvage/disposal, etc.? 6 Yes 8 No

16. Did you seek advice to help evaluate the condition of your collection? 9 Yes 43 NoIf yes, where did you obtain such advice?4 staff conservator/collections professional 0 conservator on contract1other institution 1 insurance company4 government agency 3 preservation/conservation center1 professional association(s) 1 Internet0 published resource 2 other: landlord

Please take a moment to list particularly helpful information resources for assessments:

17. Did you seek advice on how to clean and/or repair your collection? 8 Yes 41 NoIf yes, where did you obtain such advice?4 staff conservator/collections professional 2 conservator on contract1 other institution 0 insurance company1 government agency 3 preservation/conservation center0 professional association(s) 0 commercial cleaning firm0 Internet 1 published resource1 other

Please list particularly helpful information resources on cleaning and repair:

18. Were you familiar with sources of government financial assistance for recovery? 30 Yes 18 NoIf yes, please check type of assistance:

9 Small Business Administration 6 other federal agency17 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 13 city or state government agencies

19. Is your institution seeking government disaster or other financial assistance? 25 Yes 27 NoIf yes, please check source of assistance:

3 Small Business Administration 6 other federal agency10 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 15 city or state government agencies

20. In light of 9/11/01, should your institution’s emergency plans be revised? 38 Yes 14 NoIf yes, briefly describe the most important elements a new plan should include:

21. Would emergency management training for your institution’s staff be of value? 37 Yes 17 No

22. Are there plans to document your institution’s 9/11/01 experience? 25 Yes 29 NoIf yes, please describe

23. We would welcome any comments.Your experience and perspective will be helpful to our report, as willdescriptive information on collections damaged or lost. Please use this space and additional sheets if necessary.Thank you.

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Advisory Council on Historic PreservationAmerican Association of MuseumsAmerican Association for State and Local HistoryAmerican Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute for Conservation of Historic and

Artistic WorksAmerican Library AssociationAssociation of Art Museum DirectorsAssociation of Regional Conservation CentersCouncil on Library and Information ResourcesDepartment of the ArmyGeneral Services Administration, Public Buildings ServiceThe Getty Conservation InstituteInstitute of Museum and Library ServicesInternational Association of Emergency ManagersLibrary of CongressNational Archives and Records AdministrationNational Association of Government Archives and

Records Administrators

National Conference of State Historic PreservationOfficers

National Emergency Management AssociationNational Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Park ServiceNational Science FoundationNational Trust for Historic PreservationOCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.Regional Alliance for PreservationSmall Business AdministrationSmithsonian InstitutionSociety of American ArchivistsSociety for Historical ArchaeologySociety for the Preservation of Natural History

CollectionsUS/International Council on Monuments and Sites

The Heritage Emergency National Task Force, formerly known as the National Task Force onEmergency Response, was formed in 1995 to help libraries and archives, museums, historical soci-eties, and historic sites better protect their cultural and historic resources from natural disasters andother emergencies. The Task Force promotes preparedness and mitigation measures and providesexpert information on response and salvage. Its members also work together to bring their profes-sional expertise to the public.

For more information, contact the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, 1730 K St. NW,Suite 566, Washington, DC 20006, phone 202-634-1422 or 888-979-2233, e-mail [email protected], Web site www.heritageemergency.org.

Heritage Preservation is a national nonprofit organization working to preserve America’s collec-tive heritage by gathering and sharing information from respected preservation professionals on car-ing for photographs, historic documents, books, works of art, buildings, natural science specimens,and family heirlooms. Visit www.heritagepreservation.org to learn more.

The Heritage Emergency National Task Force

An Initiative ofFederal Emergency Management AgencyHeritage Preservationand

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www.heritagepreservation.org www.heritageemergency.org