Tag Archives: New York City

NYC COVID-19 Oral History, Narrative and Memory Archive

Co-directors: Amy Starecheschi, Denise Milstein, Ryan Hagen, Mary Marshall Clark
PI: Peter Bearman

A team of sociologists, oral historians, and anthropologists at Columbia University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE) and the Oral History Archives at Columbia is building an archive documenting New York City’s experience of the pandemic. The archive focuses on New York—a city of neighborhoods—to illuminate and document the social structure of the pandemic. The project combines sociology and oral history to create a rich, composite picture of the struggle against COVID-19 as it evolves over the next year and beyond.

For this project, they are conducting video interviews with each narrator three times over the course of twelve months. The voices from these interviews are enriched by written diaries chronicling daily life during the pandemic and survey data tracking the demography of participants and their social lives.

The public archive that results from this project will be available to researchers, health workers and advocates, historians, artists, and policymakers in 2022, although they expect to share some of our material before then.

Since late March, the team of thirty oral history interviewers has been working to record initial interviews with two hundred New Yorkers, including doctors, nurses, home health aides, funerary workers, doulas, parents, homeless people, organizers, artists, immigrants, teachers, other essential workers, public officials, and everyday New Yorkers of all kinds. At the same time, they are gathering chronicles and survey responses from a broad sample of the city’s population.

If you are interested in participating in this project by filling out a survey, writing chronicles, or participating in interviews, this info sheet will tell you how. You can also reach the team by email at covid19archive@gmail.com

CUNY Distance Learning Archive

This project documenting the transition to online instruction at CUNY during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic welcomes submissions from the CUNY community of the following nature:

  • Personal narratives reflecting on distance learning, especially during the abrupt shift to online education midway through the Spring 2020 semester. (Here are some suggested questions if you’re having trouble.)
  • Official email communications from CUNY Senior Administrators describing the university’s move to online teaching.
  • Documentation of online learning experiences (photos, narratives, screenshots).
  • Learning resources developed during the transition.
  • Links to social media threads/hashtags/accounts that capture events in real time
  • Email related to the move to online teaching (with express and documented permission of the sender)

Send contributions via our online form below or email your contribution to us at cunyarchive@gmail.com

Queens Memory Covid-19 Project

A collaboration between the Queens Public Library and Urban Archive, the Queens Memory Covid-19 Project seeks to document the experiences of Queens residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

4 Ways to Contribute:

  1. Leave a message on their storyline at 1-855-QNS-LOVE (767-5683). In your recording, please include:A. The spelling and pronunciation of your first and last name
    B. Your age
    C. A way to contact you
    D. A description of where you are
  2. Tag the project in your social media posts by using @queensmemory and #QueensCOVID
  3. Use this webform to send in an account of your experience in Queens. This can be captured through writing, photography, sound, or video recordings.
  4. Use this webform to send in oral history interview recordings.

Please note that if you are between the ages of 14 and 18, you must have your guardian’s consent to participate in this program. Children aged 13 or younger may not participate in this program.

OneWorld COVID-19 Special Collection

The Museum of Chinese in America has established the OneWorld Collection to feature acquisitions of a wide range of artifacts, including but not limited to photographs, letters, articles, journals, messages, notes, certificates, medical records, videos, and oral histories of Chinese Americans during this time. This collection will not only feature stories of community efforts but also highlight experiences of individuals and families during these unprecedented times.

They invite Chinese Americans to send a write up and photos to oneworld@mocanyc.org, with the subject line Submission for MOCA OneWorld COVID-19 Special Collection. Explain how you, your association, or your community group organized to help the current crisis. Share a story that is one you believe should be recorded and documented. Please provide your contact information or that of your organization’s or community’s, including full name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.

Our Streets, Our Stories

In an unprecedented time of stress and resilience, many Brooklynites are at the front lines of responding to the coronavirus crisis, and many more are encountering a new normal, as we adjust to changing work, education, housing, and even access to basic amenities.

That’s why Brooklyn Public Library is calling for submissions to its local oral history archive, Our Streets, Our Stories. At this moment in time, we have an opportunity to collect testimonies and memories of the crisis as it is unfolding so that future Brooklynites can understand the pandemic at a local level. If you are a healthcare worker, a teacher, a student, a parent, a community member, a first responder, an essential worker, a senior, or if you are incarcerated or have a loved one who is incarcerated, we want to hear from you. If you are a Brooklynite, this story is your story.

How it works: To contribute your story, or to suggest a community member for an interview, email ososproject@bklynlibrary.org or call (917) 426-1271 and let us know the best way to reach you. A member of BPL staff will set up a time with you to do a remote interview. All you will need is a phone number or a laptop with internet connection. Interviews can last a few minutes or up to an hour, depending on your interest and availability. After it is cataloged by our librarians, your story will be available online, and archived in our permanent collection under a Creative Commons license.

Covid-19 Project (Brooklyn Historical Society)

Brooklyn Historical Society is actively collecting material related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which is impacting daily life on an unprecedented scale. Their goal is to document and preserve the collective experiences of our community during the crisis, including the health, economic, social, political, and religious impacts of COVID-19 on our borough. 

They invite and encourage the public to share your thoughts, stories, and the material you have collected or created related to COVID-19 in Brooklyn.

CONTRIBUTING DIGITAL CONTENT

If you are interested in sharing digital content such as photographs, videos, and audio clips, please use our online submission form here. Digital content may be shared through our online collections platforms and social media accounts.

CONTRIBUTING PHYSICAL ITEMS

BHS is very interested in collecting physical items in the future. Due to BHS’s temporary closure, it cannot accept physical materials at this time. When it re-opens to the public, BHS will provide information about how to drop-off or mail your items.

Suggested materials, physical or digital, include:

  • Artifacts
  • Artistic reflections (e.g. rainbow artwork)
  • Business and restaurant signage about closures, fundraising initiatives, social distancing measures, and amended menus
  • Government issued posters, reports, and decrees concerning public health and safety
  • Grocery store lists and receipts
  • Housing-related material, such as rent abatements, strikes and eviction notices
  • Local and mutual aid organizations’ flyers, newsletters, mass mailings, records, and reports
  • Lesson plans and other educational material related to remote learning and homeschooling
  • Personal correspondence and journals
  • Photographs of closed businesses, hospitals and temporary medical facilities, social distancing, homeschooling, and religious activity
  • Video and audio diaries, journal entries, and reflections

Submitted materials will be reviewed by Collections staff, and may be added to our permanent collections. Items may be shared on social media. Material mailed to BHS without prior communication with BHS staff cannot be added to our collections or returned to sender. If you have questions about this collecting initiative, or BHS’s terms and conditions, please reach out to library@brooklynhistory.org.

Oral History of Disasters and Pandemics (Columbia University)

On April 16, 2020, Columbia University’s Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA) program held an online workshop on how to plan and conduct oral histories in communities affected by disasters and pandemics. Led by Mary Marshall Clark (Director of the September 11, 2001 Oral History Narrative and Memory Project) and Amy Starecheski (OHMA Director and an interviewer on the September 11 Oral History Narrative and Memory Project), the recording is available on YouTube and Soundcloud.

New-York Historical Society

Leave a reply

New-York Historical Society has launched History Responds: Collecting during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic

Their efforts, which focus on New York and the surrounding region, seek to document all aspects of the crisis, including the heroic efforts of medical personnel; the plight of the victims; the effects on businesses, schools, and cultural groups; and the creativity borne of isolation. They invite and encourage donations from the community.

  • The Patricia D. Klingenstein Library of the New-York Historical Society is gathering paper ephemera that reflect all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how people are dealing with it. Formats include: flyers, circulars, handbills, postcards, small signs, small posters, application forms, mass mailing charity requests, emails and print-outs of emails. These can be mailed to:

New-York Historical Society
Attn: Library History Responds program
170 Central Park West
New York, New York 10024

(The Library is unable to return unaccessioned materials.)

Digital items can be emailed to:
NYHSLibrary2020Collect@nyhistory.org

  • The Museum division is collecting objects and images and the stories connected to them. These may include: tools for health and medicine; household items that reflect life under quarantine and social distancing measures; new products created by business and industry; artwork placed in public view; and items that represent community projects and initiatives.

To submit objects and images (or a group of objects and paper) for consideration, please complete our Object Donation Form and email it to historyresponds@nyhistory.org along with related photos.

  • The Education department invites youth to keep and share diary entries on their experiences with the coronavirus pandemic. Students can record their diaries in whatever form they would like—digital, analog, video, voice memo—and share them.

Diary entries can be completed through this form or emailed to teens@nyhistory.org.

Diaries can also be mailed to:
New-York Historical Society
Attn: Teen Programs
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024