FDNY Ladder 3 firetruck recovered from the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Learn more at Inside the Collection.
The Collection
The 9/11 Memorial Museum’s permanent collection is an unparalleled repository consisting of material evidence, first-person testimony, and historical records of response to February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001 and the ongoing repercussions of these terrorist events. To date, the Museum has acquired more than 74,000 artifacts that document the fate of victims, survivors, and responders.
Inside the Collection
Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Gift of Retired Port Authority of NY&NJ Police Officer Sharon A. Miller. Learn more at Inside the Collection.
To learn more about the scope of the Museum’s permanent collection, please visit Inside the Collection, an online catalog with a searchable database of select objects. The database is continually growing to bring more of the Museum’s rich holdings to a wider audience. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is the proud recipient of a grant to create the Shelby White & Leon Levy Digital Archives Initiative at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, which will fund the acquisition of a digital asset management system (DAMS) serving as the Museum's first centralized repository of digitized and born-digital collections and institutional archive materials.
Give to the Collection
Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Gift of Anthony and Maryann Gambale, in Memory of Giovanna Gambale. Learn more at Inside the Collection.
The Museum is actively accepting donations to the permanent collection. If you have objects, documents, or images of a historical or commemorative nature, or a story to share that you believe might be of interest to the Museum, please tell us about them by using the link below.
Quilts from the collection on view at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.
Outgoing Loans
To help fulfill its mission, the Museum may choose to lend items from its collections for exhibition and educational purposes to other non-profit cultural and educational institutions, archives and museums.
In deciding whether to approve outgoing loans, the Museum will take into consideration the potential of such requests to advance the educational and commemorative uses of its collection. At the same time, consideration will be paid to the borrower’s ability to meet professional standards for the preservation, security, safety and public access to collection items during the term of their loan.
Loaning collection material to non-museum entities may create opportunities for diminished care and documentation of the items, as well as limit public access, which may constitute a breach of the Museum’s responsibility to maintain items in trust for the public. Loans to non-museum entities will therefore be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and may be granted in cases where the public good outweighs potential risks.
All borrowers must meet the following criteria:
- The Museum does not lend to individuals, nor will it lend collection material to elected or appointed officials for the primary purpose of decorating offices.
- The borrower will make loaned items accessible to the public pursuant to the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Any exception to full public accessibility must be brought to the Museum’s attention at the time the loan request is made.
- The borrower will meet the Museum’s requirements for safe object transport and handling, storage, and display.
- A current facility report completed by the borrowing institution must be provided to the Museum’s Registrar for review and approval prior to the release of the loan. Click here.
- The Chief Curator may require a Museum staff member to accompany the loan to the borrower and supervise its transit, unpacking and installation.
- All costs associated with object conservation, preparation, packing, crating, shipping, insurance, couriering (if required), rights and reproduction, and other loan-related costs will be paid by the borrower.
- The Museum’s Acquisition and Loans Committee will evaluate all loan requests received on an individualized basis, and reserves the right to decline a request for any reason.
A minimum of 6 months advance written notice is required to review and fulfill requests.
Requests
To initiate a loan request, please send a letter to the Chief Curator at 200 Liberty Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10281 or collections@911memorial.org that includes:
- The name and contact information of the borrower
- The purpose of the loan, including the exhibition title, dates, and summary
- Requested objects (if known, including accession number)
- Location and description of exhibition venue
- Current facility report
Oral Histories
The 9/11 Memorial Museum’s oral history archive tells the story of 9/11 through recorded interviews conducted from different perspectives, offering the immediacy of first-person testimony of lived experiences.
Mission to Remember: Conserving Objects
Conservators at the 9/11 Memorial Museum have a unique responsibility to preserve objects that have been significantly damaged and whose meaning is often found in the damage itself. Learn more as a conservator discusses the special challenge of working with diverse materials—fine art, textiles, handwritten notes, monumental emergency vehicles, World Trade Center steel—that together tell the story of 9/11.