In their words . . .

Image from the 9/11 Memorial Museum:

This quote from Book IX of "The Aeneid" by the Roman poet Virgil suggests the transformative potential of remembrance and is indicative of the museum’s mission to honor and remember the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. Each letter was forged from pieces of recovered World Trade Center steel by New Mexico artist Tom Joyce. These words are part of a larger art installation in the 9/11 Memorial Museum created in 2014 by artist Spencer Finch, titled “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning.” The installation is the focal point for Memorial Hall, the area between the two main exhibitions at bedrock in the museum. Every one of the 2,983 watercolor squares is its own shade of blue – one for each of the 2001 and 1993 attack victims – and the artwork as a whole revolves around the idea of memory. Our own perception of the color blue might not be the same as that of another person. But, just like our perception of color, our memories share a common point of reference.

After reading various oral history interviews from After the Fall: New Yorkers Remember September 2001 and the Years that Followed, and speaking to many RE alums during our class trip to NYC, we were inspired to create an archive of narratives that showed how the Ransom Everglades community was affected by the attacks on 9/11. Alumni, faculty, and others connected to RE recall very authentic and vulnerable memories about their experiences on the day of 9/11, the country’s response that immediately followed, and the aftermath that shaped their careers and perspectives. Because all of the students involved in this project were born after 9/11, these interviews provided a personal insight that can’t be captured in a textbook or history lesson. Almost all of the interviewees were able to add another very interesting component to their interviews — they considered connections between 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic, since most of the interviews took place in March & April, 2020.

The interviews are lightly edited for clarity, but everything of substance was left untouched. Any breaks in sentences are clearly noted with larger ellipses (. . .) — shorter ellipses (...) were generally used to indicate brief pauses. To access the interviews, you can either click the name or photo of the interviewee you’re interested in or go to the map. The two maps show where everyone was at the time of the attacks — one specifically for those in New York City and one for the rest of the interviewees who were around the country. Click on a green star icon to reveal the identity and a short biography of the interviewee and use the URL to read his/her interview. We hope you enjoy this archive as much as we do and thank you for reading!

— Mr. Cooper’s 2019-2020 "Roots and Legacy of 9/11" Class