Man from Utah preserves shuttered 9/11 museum by putting it online

UTAH COUNTY, Utah — A Utah County man is working to preserve a 9/11 museum in New York City that just shut its doors for good.

He’s doing it with the help of modern technology.

“That’s what I remember seeing is just smoke and fire,” said Scott Howard.

The sights and sounds — they take us back, they help us reflect.

“And they explained to me that there had been at attack in New York City.”

Howard was at school in the 6th grade.

“There was a much bigger world out there, and there were people who hated us enough to, you know, kill people,” he said.

So when he heard the 9/11 Tribute Museum was going away — a momento created by families of the fallen — he called them, flying there the next day.

 “To me, was horrifying.”

He captured everything he could, like the helmet and jacket of a firefighter.

“Been at a loss for words at this. You know, there was somebody in this.”

The twisted beam from one of the towers.

“Just amazing to me how violent this was.”

And the faces of those lost.

“Families were torn apart for what? For nothing.”

All the while, he says museum workers around him were taking them down, boxing them up.

“Feels a bit like they died again, you know?”

But not forgotten.

Howard captured tens of thousands of images, making a virtual tour.

“That’s a real privilege.”

It can be seen on his web service, Museverse, along with around a dozen other museums in four states and two countries. But this project for Howard was unique.

“Just really made it personal.”

In part because it’s gone, but also because, like so many of us, he too was changed by 9/11.

“I dunno. I lost a lot of my childhood that day,” Howard said.

Through Museverse, people can subscribe and tour museums around the world. It’s free to the museums, but they get half the money, while Howard’s business gets the other half.

Officials say many of the displays from the 9/11 Tribute Museum will eventually be put on display at the New York State Museum in Albany.