Category Archives: Crowdsourced

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

Touching Hearts, Not Hands: A Call to Collect Creative Responses to Coronavirus through Poems, Songs, Stories, and Videos

In a human response to the frightening and sometimes deadly virus, City Lore is collecting and archiving creative responses to the pandemic. They have started a group poem – It Takes a Pandemic. Poet Bob Holman (United States of Poetry, Language Matters) has joined forces with City Lore to curate and organize the material with us. Send your lines to jake@citylore.org with the heading It Takes a Pandemic. By submitting lines, you agree to let us share them. Click here to read the full ongoing poem. Please send other poems, videos, images or screen shots created by you or others with the heading Touching Hearts, Not Hands to jake@citylore.org. If you send materials by others let City Lore know whom you received it from if possible, and let them know if you have permission to share.

Letters from 6′ Away: South Asian American Experiences During COVID-19

A project of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), Letters from 6′ Away seeks to document South Asian experiences of this moment by giving contributors prompts to follow to  write a letter to themselves one year in the future. The letter will be included in SAADA’s archive (with permission) and will be sent to the contributor via mail or email one year from now. 

Objects of Comfort

In late March, the Tenement Museum launched a crowdsourced collecting initiative, Objects of Comfort. Grown from their digital exhibit platform Your Story, Our Story, Objects of Comfort seeks to know how people are coping through this crisis. What objects, traditions, recipes, and songs are giving people strength? How are people finding inspiration from their families, and from the past, to keep going? How do meaningful objects connect us to each other, spark memories, and even make us healthier?
The object stories are curated into an online collection on Your Story, Our Story, and any new submission will be added to that collection.

Anyone can contribute a story of something that is bringing them comfort right now—all that’s needed to submit is a story of 250 words or less, and an image. Families and classes can participate through a special group gallery function on the platform.

the covid-19 oral history project

The COVID-19 Oral History Project is a rapid response oral history focused on archiving the lived experience of the COVID-19 epidemic. Based at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), this project emerged from the collective efforts of graduate students in the IUPUI Public History and American Studies Programs. The COVID-19 Oral History Project is housed at the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute. It is a partner project with The Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of Covid19.

This project is designed so that professional researchers and the broader public can create and upload their oral histories to our database. They are seeking researchers with experience conducting oral histories or ethnographies to help conduct a series of formal oral histories and also offering a series of workshops to train members of the public to conduct oral histories in their communities.

All the data that participants collect and produce will be open access, open source and shared with researchers and the public through the IUPUI Library and the Covid-19 Archive.

The dataset will serve as

  1. an historical archive that compiles oral histories about the experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

  2. a tool that allows individuals and communities to express their understandings, hopes, beliefs, and values about the COVID-19 pandemic.

  3. a resource to help researchers, policy makers, activists, artists, and communities interpret and respond to current and future pandemics.

 

We Stayed at Home: A Record of Geneva During the 2020 Pandemic

The Geneva (New York) Historical Society’s mission is telling Geneva’s stories.  Join them in documenting this historic moment through We Stayed At  Home: A Record of Geneva During The 2020 Pandemic.

What might future historians and generations need to understand the COVID-19 Pandemic?  Everyone has a story to tell and they invite you to share your story on how the Pandemic is affecting your life.   Are you in an at-risk group or have someone in your home who is?  How has the stay-at-home order affected you?  Do you shop less or use a grocery delivery service? What has been your experience at the store?  If you eat out regularly, do you continue to get takeout or delivery from those restaurants?  If you are on Facebook or Instagram, do you have a favorite meme or post (PG-13) that sums up your experience?  For students at home, what has your experience been like? What is your new normal?

Share your story through

  • Narratives – letter, poem, song, recipes, short story
  • Images – photographs, screenshots of social media, memes
  • Audio
  • Videos
  • Files – emails, flyers, announcements, text messages, tweets

Through their Facebook page, Instagram account, blog articles  and this page, they will regularly share submissions to We At Stayed Home.  Some submissions to We At Stayed Home will become part of the Historical Society’s collection.  For more information about the project, contact  Archivist Becky Chapin at archivist@genevahistoricalsociety.com.

Submit your story here.

Por­trait of a Vil­lage in a Time of Cri­sis: Irv­ing­ton 2020

The Irvington (New York) Historical Society seeks the community’s help in chronicling the extraordinary circumstances all are living through as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Please send personal reflections, stories, and photos that express your response to the crisis. The Society will collect, compile, and preserve your submissions as part of our mission to chronicle the history of the village.

They welcome contributions from villagers of all ages. Your contributions will provide a portrait of Irvington as it faces the challenges of this very complicated time. They plan to share some of your reflections on their website, on social media, and in their newsletter The Roost.

Sub­mis­sion Guide­lines:

* Send your sub­mis­sions to pres­i­dent@irv­ing­ton­his­tor­i­cal­so­ci­ety.org

Or Irv­ing­ton His­tor­i­cal So­ci­ety, PO Box 23. Irv­ing­ton, NY 10533

* In­clude your sub­mis­sion as an at­tach­ment to your email.

* To send pho­tos, use .jpg and in­clude a cap­tion.

* There is no min­i­mum or max­i­mum word length. Sub­mis­sions may be ex­cerpted or edited, as deemed ap­pro­pri­ate for pro­ject pur­poses.

* By mak­ing a sub­mis­sion, you are grant­ing per­mis­sion for dis­tri­b­u­tion and/​or pub­li­ca­tion by the Irv­ing­ton His­tor­i­cal So­ci­ety

Quarantined in the Time of Corona: Oneida County Experiences during COVID-19

The Oneida County History Center is inviting the public to submit their COVID-19 stories.  These narratives will become part of the History Center’s collections and will be available for future researchers to learn how the community was impacted by this global pandemic. Complete the form below to share your experience during this unprecedented time. Want to submit your story vial mail? Download the form at the bottom of the page, print, and send your submission to:

Oneida County History Center
Attn: Lauren Robinson
1608 Genesee Street

What do we want to know? Please use the questions below to get you started.

  • ​What’s a typical day like during quarantine?
  • How do you fill your time in quarantine?
  • How do you stay connected during this period of social distancing?
  • Has social distancing and quarantine changed your opinion of social media at all? How?
  • Have you noticed changes in your community since the outbreak?
  • What has surprised you most?
  • Do you have any tips to make this time more enjoyable?
  • When the crisis is over, what do you hope for yourself, your community, your country, or the world?
  • Is there anything else you would like to add that hasn’t already been asked above?​

Visuals are welcome! Please label images with location and date. Upload and submit with the form below or email to lrobinson@oneidacountyhistory.org. Please use the subject line ‘My COVID story, your name’.

COVID-19 Archive Project (Schenectady County, New York)

The Schenectady County Historical Society is calling on community members to help document local experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

It’s an emergency of historic proportions, and has been compared to the Black Plague, or the 1918 Spanish Flu. Like those past crises, COVID-19 will be a major topic of study for future historians. Years from now, Schenectadians will look back and wonder, “how did the COVID-19 pandemic affect Schenectady County? How did our ancestors respond to the crisis?” “What was life like for people quarantined, for months?”

You can help future researchers understand for themselves what life right now is like. You can help future historians understand the pandemic’s immense impact on our community, and on ourselves, and on our way of life. You can help future historians understand how this international emergency changed your life, and changed our world, forever.

Consider recording your unique perspective for inclusion in the SCHS archives. Diaries, scrapbooks, photo albums, letters, songs, poems, short stories, and other works of art are all important sources for future historians. Be creative: there are infinite ways you can express yourself, and document the impact of COVID-19 on you, your loved ones, and your neighbors. Help us, by:

The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact is an on-going, changing situation. It will take time to document how we are all affected. If you have questions about ways you can contribute to the SCHS archive collection, or about documenting your experiences, contact the SCHS librarian, Marietta Carr, at librarian@schenectadyhistorical.org