Author Archives: men2022

Unmasking Our Heroes (New York City Fire Museum)

The New York City Fire Museum’s mission is to Preserve, Celebrate & Educate. In light of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the historic response of the FDNY to unprecedented requests for emergency medical services (reaching over 6,500 in one day), the Museum is collecting any and all signs of gratitude expressed by the public for the FDNY. These will constitute an exhibition, “Unmasking Our Heroes” as soon as the Museum can re-open and allow unrestricted numbers of visitors to bear witness to these expressions of thanks. In the meantime, the NYC Fire Museum is asking for the public’s cooperation to contribute to this project with either their simple statements of their experiences or by contributing artifacts for display, by visiting www.nycfiremuseum.org/thanksFDNY #wewillrememberfdny

The NYC Fire Museum is the fourth oldest Museum in Manhattan, tracing its roots back to December 1870, when artifacts were put on display in fire headquarters at 155 Mercer Street. The tradition continues today in a 1904 Beaux-art firehouse at 278 Spring Street.

Documenting COVID-19 (Villanova University)

All Villanova University students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited to contribute to the Documenting COVID-19 collection effort, created by Falvey Memorial Library, in conjunction with the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest. Villanovans may:

    • Submit their story
    • Share images (photographs, artwork)
    • Share a video or audio recording
    • Create and share a collection of objects
    • Share any reflections from this unique period

Contributors may submit as many times as they like, as events unfold, emotions change, or they feel like sharing more about their experience. Collecting will be ongoing throughout the pandemic and in the subsequent weeks after the pandemic has passed. All submissions will be preserved in the University Archives at Falvey Memorial Library.

Communities of the West During COVID-19

The Autry Museum of the American West is helping communities across the West identify and preserve items of historical and cultural significance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting April 22, the Autry is launching its Collecting Community History: A Regional Collections Initiative of Exploration and Preservation. It is the first in a series of efforts to support communities in the West collect, catalogue, and preserve moments of history—past and present.

They invite you to share an aspect of your creative practices and ways of staying connected during this time, such as journal entries, recipes, and pictures of face masks during this quarantine. Particular objects of interest include face masks, photographs, and recipes. They will be highlighting some of these different objects, images, and experiences on their blog, The Autry Files.  In the case of photographs of physical objects, please note that—at some point in the future—they may get in touch to see if you would be interested in donating the objects to their collections.

Black Carolinians Speak: Portraits of Pandemic

The South Carolina African American Heritage Commission (SCAAHC) (part of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History) has initiated Black Carolinians Speak: Portraits of a Pandemic to gather first person testimonies, letters, music, images, art and other documents that capture the experiences of African Americans in South Carolina during the global pandemic of 2020.  They suggest the following possible submission formats:

  • Write: Share written testimonies of your personal experience – Diary or journal entries, letters, essays, poetry, etc.
  • Create Artwork: Submit scans or photographs of drawings or paintings or share original music that reflects your own or your community’s experience.
  • Take photographs or video of your environment/community/life in quarantine
  • Share screenshots of relevant social media posts
  • Gather testimonies from children and teens about their experiences 

The Commission plans to collect stories throughout the duration of this crisis and, whenever possible, will connect with participants to conduct oral history interviews during the months after the situation is resolved.  All documents and information collected will be included in the Commission papers housed at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH).  If you have questions or would like to donate oversized documents and other materials for this purpose, please contact SCAAHC Chairperson Jannie Harriot (scaahcchairlady@gmail.com) or SCDAH African American Heritage Coordinator Dr. Ramon Jackson (rjackson@scdah.sc.gov).  

Coronavirus Chronicles

Created by PhD candidates Conor Donnan, Sarah Yu and Jennifer Yip at University of Pennsylvania, Coronavirus Chronicles invites people of diverse backgrounds around the world to pen “diaries” of their day-to-day, as well as to share their thoughts on public health strategies. The resulting collage of stories, presented on an online platform, will facilitate continued connection, and demonstrate that no one is or should be alone in this fight. The voices of the majority of people are often neglected in history books, but this project hopes to provide future scholars and members of the public with diverse perspectives on COVID-19.

cv19memorial

cv19memorial is a digital and transnational space to share experiences of loss during COVID-19. In a time marked by physical distance, they’re exploring ways of expressing pain through personal testimony. They are inviting people to add words, photos, mementos on grief and witness others’ contributions. They recognize that this crisis does not affect all equally and is made worse for many through systemic inequality.

cv19memorial works as both a space for collective mourning and as an archive that is available to individuals or organizations who may apply for access to the archive to further mobilize testimonies in forums such as: legal cases, legislative efforts, artistic endeavours, or academic research, etc.

They are a team of activists, artists, designers and researchers committed to human rights defense and with ample experience in the development of memorials, participatory processes and interactive platforms. They live in Mexico, the UK, Canada and the USA. They are also people  deeply affected and grieving during the COVID-19 crisis who care about telling this story.

Project creators are: Jorge Andrade, Phoebe Bachman, Zoe Bachman, Sergio Beltrán-García, Leigh Brown, Jacob Ford, Tamara Jamil, Mark Nieto, Tim Nottage, Will Qian, Azalea Vaseghi