Let someone read your diary? Historians want help documenting coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus outbreak is a historic moment.
Members of the Tacoma Historical Society want to document the lives of those who are living through it.
They’re asking Tacoma residents to write about how the coronavirus outbreak has affected their lives and their community and to submit the entries online at tacomahistory.org.
There is no restriction on length of submission, and people can submit the online form multiple times.
“I think it’s important for people to realize that anything is valuable — from the everyday observations that may seem mundane to more significant impacts on people’s lives that are truly transformative,” said Kim Davenport, communications manager for the Tacoma Historical Society.
The historical society will discuss whether they will display the entries in a later exhibit.
“When we are living through history, we can’t yet know what future historians might find interesting or significant,” Davenport said. “So our goal with this project is to help Tacoma capture as much as we can about this experience.”
The Washington State Historical Society also is asking people to document and share their experiences, according to a press release on Tuesday.
“We want to capture what you’re going through right now as it unfolds, because this is an extraordinary time in our history. We will continue to collect as we experience the impacts over the coming years,” said Margaret Wetherbee, head of collections at the state Historical Society.
The Historical Society is asking for digital content including (but not limited to) photographs, audio and video clips, screenshots of social media memes or posts, reports, correspondence, observations, and physical objects such as home made masks, coronavirus closure notices, decals, diaries or letters.
People can send digital content to digitalarchive@wshs.wa.gov but are asked to save physical objects until the state’s Research Center reopens. For more information, visit washingtonhistory.org.
Washington’s coronavirus history will be notable as one of the first pandemic hot spots in the United States, according to the state Historical Society.
“Future Washingtonians will research these days, asking how we coped with the suddenly vacated office buildings, curtailed services, and medical supply shortages. They’ll want to know how this event impacted our lives on a personal level. Just as we are now looking to the 1918 flu epidemic for insight into our present experience, folks in the future will want to know about our Stay Home/Stay Healthy protocol, and how we managed to come together to help one another,” said Jennifer Kilmer, Washington State Historical Society’s director.
