Category Archives: Collecting

Immigrants in COVID America

Immigrants in COVID America, a project from the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center, documents the first six-month period of the pandemic in the U.S. – beginning with the January 30, 2020 World Health Organization declaration that the coronavirus outbreak was an international emergency – and focuses on four issues that have particularly affected immigrants, refugees, and asylees during the pandemic: immigration policy, health, labor & the economy, and anti-Asian xenophobia.

The project highlights fact-based research and reporting from reputable national media sources and think tanks supplemented by ethnic and local media. It also includes perspectives from experts, scholars, and political commentators and provide a summary analysis of emerging trends and issues. A variety of methods are used to identify sources, including Google news alerts and immigration-related newsletters and digests, such as Migratory Notes and ImmigrationProfBlog. Diverse perspectives and opinions – political and otherwise – are included whenever possible, especially when they highlight the trajectory behind certain policies and the experiences of immigrants and refugees themselves.

It also includes Stories from the Pandemic, a collaboration with the Sahan Journal (a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to providing authentic news reporting for and about immigrants and refugees in Minnesota) to create digital stories documenting the experiences of immigrants and refugees during the pandemic.

History Now: The Pandemic Diaries Project

As the COVID-19 pandemic transforms lives across the city, nation, and world, The New York Public Library seeks to document this pivotal moment in our history—and wants to hear and preserve your story. The Pandemic Diaries project invites submissions, via an online form, audio recordings of yourself or your loved ones telling personal stories about life amid the pandemic. The audio diaries collected as part of this project will document the experiences of people from all walks of life, in their own words. These diaries will be archived in NYPL’s research libraries—the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts—to be preserved and made available to the public, scholars, journalists, and students for decades to come.

COVID-19 MKE

COVID-19 MKE: A Milwaukee Coronavirus Digital Archive aims to document how the Milwaukee area experienced the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. It was built by students in Prof. Christopher D. Cantwell’s “Local History Research Methods” class and is hosted by the Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. All of the material on the site has beencontributed by members of the greater Milwaukee community.

Any image, story, video, recording, or email that captures something about this moment is an appropriate contribution. Potential submissions include: 

  • Photographs of signs on businesses or homes
  • Stories of personal isolation or community engagement
  • Notifications from employers, organizations, or community officials
  • Instances of social distancing; or moments of connection while in isolation
  • Images of empty streets or buildings
  • Recordings of silence in places once vibrant
  • Documentation of the peculiar sights, sounds, and events of a community on quarantine
  • Meditations on health, wellbeing, and ability amidst sickness
  • Reflection on what the crisis has revealed to you about either yourself or your community

One of the unique features of this moment is how it is unfolding for many of us in isolation. This is why we specifically flagged “emails” as an item we are interested in collecting. Documenting why and how an organization chose to close, stay open, or accommodate this current moment will be of interest to future historians.  

Illinois College: Archive Your Story

The Khalaf Al Habtoor Archives at Illinois College invites community members to “Archive your Story.” Anyone with a connection to the College can get involved by sharing journal entries, recordings, writings and other documents to be shared with the historians of tomorrow. The Archives will also undertake an oral history project which will allow contributors to record their stories. Community stories will be shared immediately through social media and the College website, which can be later archived.

Suggested ways to contribute to the project include:

  • Compiling journal entries about day-to-day experiences. Whether you are a nurse treating sick patients, a grocery store employee, restaurant owner, student, parent — the list goes on — we hope to hear from you. A wide range of experiences will help us create rich resources that illustrate the widespread effect of the pandemic on campus life. 
  • Write an essay or other response about your experience. This can take whatever creative form you choose. 
  • Take pictures to document your experience. Document your home workspace, take a picture of something that has changed in your life or how you are staying connected or helping others. 
  • Speak up for the heroes you see. Share stories about others who have helped you or are making a difference in the community. Send a quick email or Facebook message to the College letting us know the stories in the IC community that interest you.
  • Contact us to share your ideas. This project is a collaborative effort. If you have story ideas or want to contribute something unique, please contact us. 

Anyone interested in learning more can email archiveyourstory@ic.edu. 

Theatre 2020 Collection

An initiative of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the Theatre 2020 Collection is seeking digital files from theatre professionals that could help future scholars and students understand this moment and how the theatre community responded. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your career? Your organization or theatre company? How have your plans changed?

The project will be collecting stories and files throughout the duration of the pandemic. Contributors should simply register as an individual or an organization, and they will send a link to a Box.com folder with instructions on how to upload content. Contributors can choose to submit whatever files they are comfortable sharing that help document their experience or the experience of their organization. The Ransom Center will review submissions to ensure they align with the scope of this collecting initiative, and the files will be preserved and made accessible for research at the Center.

Pandemic Religion: A Digital Archive

Pandemic Religion: A Digital Archive collects and preserves experiences and responses from individuals and religious communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was started by John G. Turner (Department of Religious Studies) and Lincoln Mullen (Department of History and Art History) at George Mason University and is hosted by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History at New Media at George Mason University.

Pandemic Religion (on Twitter @pandemicrel) invites the public to share anything that bears witness to their personal experiences, or that documents the activities and responses of their religious community. They invite contributions from people of any religious tradition, community, or perspective in the form of  images, videos, audio files, texts, and more. Everything from sermons to screen shots. It is difficult to know what present and future scholars will find most valuable. If you have any questions about what is desirable or permissible to share, please contact  pandemicreligion@gmail.com.

Carleton Covid-19 Archive

The Carleton Covid-19 Archive focuses on the pandemic’s impact on Carleton College and its communities, and the responses and experiences of those communities. All submissions are welcome, but it especially encourages the participation of Carleton students, faculty, staff, alumni, neighbors, and community partners. Submissions can include materials of institutional and organizational responses, community responses, and personal responses and experiences in the formats of  photographs, announcements, posters, emails, journals, artwork, social media content, and more. Carleton students will curate submissions while also gathering materials for the archive themselves. A course blog provides additional insight into the course and the work students are doing on the project.

Once the urgency of the pandemic has passed, the project will work with the Carleton College Archives to determine the best permanent home for the items gathered by the project.

UMaine COVID-19 Community Archive

The University of Maine COVID-19 Community Archive is a collection of items compiled as part of Raymond H. Fogler Library’s Special Collections’ project to create an archive that preserves the story of the experiences of the University of Maine community during the pandemic. Material was submitted to Special Collections by members of the University community and web content harvested directly by the University Archivist, starting in February 2020.

As well as collecting and preserving the University’s administration’s response the COVID-19 Community Archive documents the responses of individual University of Maine departments to the pandemic, particularly the transition to online teaching and learning. The Archive also contains items that illustrate the personal experiences of individual students, faculty, researchers, staff, and alumni, whether currently in Maine or not.

A Bibliography of Historians’ Responses to COVID-19

The American Historical Association is compiling a professionally vetted bibliography of historians’ responses to COVID-19 as a resource for the public, teachers, and scholars seeking historical perspectives on the current crisis and its local and global impacts.

The bibliography includes commentary and publications by historians in both scholarly and popular periodical literature; recorded lectures and webcasts; and digitized primary source materials from past epidemics and pandemics. In amassing these references, the AHA seeks to provide a space where anyone, regardless of expertise, can find digital historical material relevant to the COVID-19 crisis. Educators will find the bibliography especially useful as a professionally vetted index of online resources amenable to remote instruction.

Covid Memorial Quilt

The Covid Memorial Quilt is a living memorial to all those who have died from COVID-19. It began as a 7th grade community action project, “Young Change-Makers in a COVID-19 World.” Inspired by stories about the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which her mother worked on, student Madeleine Fugate chose to make a Covid Memorial Quilt as a way to publicly grieve, honor and recognize all those who have died.

Word spread and the Covid Memorial Quilt soon outgrew a school project. Individual Memorial Squares are sent in from all over the world by friends and families to honor a loved one. The Covid Memorial Quilt has now become a global project of hope and healing.