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This
collection marks the first time that University Archives personnel
have ever been confronted with the task of performing stewardship
of a collection prior to actual accessioning of the collection.
The issues surrounding care of the materials at the original
site at the UGA Arch and subsequent removal/recovery of items
from that site were complicated because of the nature of the
memorial, and the immediacy of the need which had spurred
its creation in the first place.
Though
the placement of items at the Arch in the wake of the terrorist
attacks on September 11th was not chronicled with precision,
it can safely be established that by the morning of Wednesday,
September 12th, there were certainly artifacts in place there.
By the weekend, the volume of materials at the Arch had increased
substantially, and early the following week, the first questions
surrounding the care of artifacts surfaced, as midweek rain
threatened for the first time those items left at the site.
Initial contacts with University administrators Richard Rose
and Richard Mullendore led first to a visit to the site by
UGA Archives staff with protective plastic sleeves on Wednesday,
September 19th. Paper documents were placed in these sleeves,
and continued discussions with UGA administrators led to the
decision by President Michael Adams to leave the Arch site
intact through a planned memorial service on Thursday evening,
the 20th of September. It was further decided that the materials
would be retired from the Arch site the following day, for
reasons of campus safety (flowing wax from the memorial had
created a pedestrian hazard) and preservation of the materials
themselves. Thus it was that the artifacts were recovered
on September 21, 2001 by UGA Archives and Physical Plant personnel,
and were transferred to the custody of University Archives.
Approximately 4 cubic feet of these artifacts were used in
a display which occupied the lobby of the Ilah Dunlap Little
Memorial Library from September 21-30, 2001.
There
was an additional volume of melted wax recovered from the
site by Physical Plant manager Dexter Adams (c. 10 lbs.);
this was was to be held until a memorial candle could be crafted
from this material.
(WEBMASTER
NOTE: The re-created memorial candle will be burned on September
11, 2002 during a memorial service in front of the Main Library
at 5:30pm)
CREATOR NOTE
SCOPE AND CONTENT
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