The MEMO Blog

In the wake of 9/11, as Commissioner of the Mayor's Community Assistant Unit, Rosemarie O'Keefe created the Family Assistance Center, a massive support system for the families of victims. In this installment of our "In Their Own Voices" series, O'Keefe recounts the Center's origins and attempts to make the 2001 holiday season as normal as possible for those whose who'd lost loved ones just three months earlier. 

Read the text of a November 27 USA Today opinion piece by President & CEO Elizabeth L. Hillman addressing the resurfacing of bin Laden's 2002 treatise 'Letter to America.'

A guest blog post from our Curatorial Assistant highlights memories and newly acquired photographs from the family of Flight 175 victim Ana Gloria Pocasangre de Barrera. 

A special Salute to Service edition of our "In Their Own Voices" series, highlighting Philip J. Smith, an Army personnel officer who was working in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. 

A special public program this week examines the history of hip hop, the evolution of the genre in a post-9/11 world, and New York City — with its ever-changing skyline — influenced the artistic movement that now spans the globe. 

Highlights from our 22nd anniversary commemoration, which brought together thousands in New York and around the globe for in-person and digital remembrance of the day that changed our world forever. 

With a generous grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum is  establishing its first-ever institution-wide digital asset management system (DAMS), which will enable the Museum to further organize, preserve, and significantly expand access to its digital collections and institutional archives.

Caleigh Leiken, born September 11, 2001 in New York City, reflects on growing up in the wake of the terrorist attacks and coming of age in the pandemic. Today, the Ohio State senior plans to pursue a career in law, a path heavily influenced by the upheavals unique to her generation.

Fall 2001 saw David Friel completing the final weeks of his aviation career. His impending retirement inspired him to start maintaining a personal journal that detailed his experience as a pilot in the wake of 9/11. That journal is now in our permanent collection. Here, Friel elaborates on his unique perspective.

Artist Anthony Graviano spent the immediate aftermath of 9/11 visiting Ground Zero and taking inspiration from the colossal remnants of the steel structures. His paintings convey the unusual spirit of unity generated by the attacks.