Items

• 2021-01-15

  The old gray mask

  I would like to submit my gray, cotton face mask to the COVID-19 Archive. It is perhaps not as the most important item, but certainly it is the most present item for me throughout this pandemic. At almost a full year into this adventure, everyone has a keen familiarity with and opinion of face masks. I got this one as a gift. It feels about the same as getting socks on Christmas, except more useful. I have used this thing every single day unless I forget it—which sends me into a chaotic panic. I am a teacher in a suburb of Nashville, TN. Our school district insists on teaching in person, despite having alarmingly high infection rates in our community. This mask is now part of my daily uniform, a non-negotiable. It serves as a role model for students. A sign that their health is of paramount concern to us. It is part of everything I do. I have dozens of paper replacements in my desk. Those aren’t as good. They straps hurt your ears. The cloth ones are better, more comfortable. I thought about getting one with my favorite band’s logo, but I am going to stick with this old reliable gray, cotton mask. The smell of this mask will haunt me the rest of my life. I wash it multiple times per week. It often smells like laundry detergent. That is a good thing. However, by the end of the day it often smells like whatever I had for lunch. The masks gets hot. It is blasted with my carbon dioxide for eight hours straight. It gets really bad when I have to lecture during the day. When you inhale sharply to talk, it sucks in the material. I’ve learned how to breathe differently when I have the mask on. Sometimes I just pinch the end and hold it with my fingers while I talk. I can rarely take it off. I panic if I forget to put it on when I leave my classroom to go anywhere. Who would have ever thought this little cloth mask would be so important? I often doubt that it is effective at preventing the spread or contraction of infection. I am certainly NOT an anti-masker. But it’s a piece of cloth. I guess that it’s better than nothing. This gray cotton face mask, sometimes imbued with the glorious smell of fresh linen in the breeze or Last night’s roast and mashed potatoes has become a source of loathing and resentment, but simultaneously an anti-viral security blanket (if only in my imagination). Yet, I can’t wait to get rid of this vile thing.
• 
  2020-10-16

  Social funeral: Bereavement Authority of Ontario

  This release provides an update on the procedures for funerals during the pandemic.
• 
  2020

  Uzumaki

  Uzumaki is a story by Japanese Horror mangaka Junji Ito where people become insane and turn into twisted spirals left forever contorted by madness, this is a simple jab at that story as this year has been nothing but a downward spiral.
• 
  2020-11-19

  43 Days left...

  It has been a long year, but the ending seems so quick...
• 
  2020

  Meme - Transition to Online Learning

  HIST30060 This is a meme saved several months ago (approximately some time during late Semester One) about the transition to online University. What social media platform it came from, and who the original author is remains a mystery. I have chosen to upload this meme because I believe it serves as an example (albeit a satirical one) of how the transition to online Uni has effected students. As a person who struggles with learning difficulties even during the best of times, this meme was a relatable representation of how I felt about University this year, and how challenging the transition to online classes was.
• 
  2020-10

  An early return home

  HIST30060 These images demonsrtate the ways that people online and in charge of covid responses have responded to the pandemic. These are all demonstrations of how I have been impacted by the pandemic, by having to leave my exchange, and by my university having been moved entirely online.
• 
  2020

  Shopping in a pandemic

  While online grocery shopping has become incredibly popular during the pandemic, many people still choose to brave the outside world and go to the store. Due to the coronavirus, shoppers are required to wear masks, as well as maintain social distancing and only travel one direction down aisles.
• 
  2020-06-18

  Corona in Warm Weather

  When I saved the meme, I did so because it references the game Plague INC. In the game, the player controls attributes about an illness (transmission, symptoms, and other attributes) the red symbols represent heat resistance.
• 
  2020

  Woe, Plague Be Upon You

  A simple meme that has been circulating around
• 
  2020-08-16

  Nurse Meme

  This is a meme that was sent around the COVID unity among the nurses that my sister shared with me. I thought it was a funny way the nurses make the best of their situation and try to laugh whenever they can.
• 
  2020-07-23

  Corona vs. College

  I related to this meme because after getting laid off from my job, and moving back home to California, I had to make ends meet. I got another job and started a new life not expecting to go back to UNLV for a while just for an email to go out saying they were allowing students to come back on campus. My friends who are currently on campus aren’t getting anything close to their normal experience (I’m a dance major) and I’m learning remotely yet still paying a full tuition? In addition, I was reading how there were huge cuts to colleges throughout the U.S due to the virus so to me this shows the governments disconnect with higher education. Allowing the facilities to reopen as they wish but taking their funds away that directly affect their student body, who are most likely struggling financially themselves is baffling to me. Had funds not been cut, I believe some colleges may have not felt the need to reopen so soon, as funding may not have been as big of a concern. Disclaimer, this is not facts just my honest opinion and experience!
• 
  2020

  Unsurmountable feeling of Digital Dread: A 3 Line Poem for those done with it All

  Oh, woe be the mind riddled with sickening screens! So easy it is now to skip class and be free! It seems so simple without a toll or a fee! Lest be our nauseated souls, Cure us of this sickness, and relieve our woe!
• 
  2020-09-27

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/27-10/03/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about the ability of incarcerated people to vote would cause them to be treated better, living like a caged animal, lockdown, going outside, mental health, watching presidential debates in prison, a second Covid outbreak happening in his prison, how important family connection is, incarcerated people are eligible for a stimulus check, people of color being the majority of incarcerated people and the majority of Covid deaths, difference of sentencing of white and black people,
• 
  2020-09-20

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/20-09/26/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about mind, body, soul, freedom, effort to locate contraband cell phones, lack of compassion, support, Breonna Taylor, the rule against shaking a free persons hand, using the word inmate removes humanity, prisons acting as a herd immunity experiment, journalists profiting from the pain of incarceration, and rock bottom.
• 
  2020-09-13

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/13-09/19/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about #BlueLivesMatter, police shootings, and violence, self worth, parenting from prison, fighting for justice, trauma, reading, meditation, protests, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, and district attorneys.
• 
  2020-09-06

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 09/06-09/12/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about how Sunday's are the hardest for him because he missed spending time with his family, spending Labor Day in a melting cage, is he in a California or west coast prison where they are experiencing raging wild fires or is it just hot there, convict leasing is still happening, including many of the firefighters used to battle the wildfires in California, those in county jails learning sign language to be able to communicate from their cells because they spent little time outside their cells, the lack of vegetables in prison made them plant "secret gardens" both inside and out, rehabilitation in spite of toxic conditions, mentorship, his many family members that are/were incarcerated and how incarceration tears apart families.
• 
  2020-08-30

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/30-09/05/2020 by Railroad Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person utilizing a contraband cell phone to let the outside world know about prison conditions during the pandemic. This week he talks about forever loosing his right to vote because he is now a felon, the logic of incarceration where people are told everyday how worthless they are as a way to make them "fit" into society, the daily request he receives to send or receive messages on his contraband cell phone, that the phone represents hope, a dream about Donald Trump, he never had role models growing up but now has them inside prison and they are other incarcerated people, and his greatest fear is not knowing. He says that used to relate to not knowing when he would get out, or if his parents would die before he is released but Covid has changed this into not knowing when he will be allowed to shower or get a bar of soap.
• 
  2020-08-21

  Guard Tested Positive: Conditions Inside One of America's Incarceration Facilities

  This Tweet, from an incarcerated person, shows and expresses the conditions and treatment inside of a correctional facility with a Covid positive employee. The replies show what the public thinks of the situation.
• 
  2020-08

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/16-08/22/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These Tweets were posted by a man inside a prison using a contraband cell phone. This week he talks about their nutrition, lack of air conditioning, lack of showers, the wildfires near Vacaville Prison in California and the lack of plan for evacuation, a friend that recently died of Covid, and how good it felt to finely be allowed to go outside for a bit.
• 
  2020-08

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/09-08/15/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person using a contraband cell phone. This week he Tweets about politics, specifically Kamala Harris being chosen for VP and her role in incarcerating so many people while she was a prosecutor, another friend returning from solitary confinement, an unsanitary kitchen prison laborers were forced to prepare food in, the number of incarcerated crime victims, prison population reduction, getting more soap, and having to share a shower head with three or four other people because the prison removed several shower heads.
• 
  2020-08

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 08/02-08/08/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  The images show Tweets from a person incarcerated in a US prison using a contraband cell phone. These week he mentions politics, retweets several people including one person discussing who is worthy of release, people being sent to solitary confinement to quarantine, and the people at his facility being told they must cooperate with rehousing assignments or be punished.
• 
  2020-04

  Old Paranoia

  The modern day photo, the one quivocating social distancing to Communism, I first stumbled upon on social media. The photo instantly made me think how paranoia has always played a part in the American attitude towards the government; Americans have always been quick to assume that the government isn't being straightforward with them and that there's a conspiracy afoot. That conclusion leads me to the second photo, taken in August of 1959 in Little Rock, Arkanasas, was the response to school integration that allowed African-Americans to go to formerly White-Only schools. As you can see, it's a mirror image of Americans forming conspiracy theories or general paranoia that is usually scapegoated onto Communism.
• 
  2020-08-06

  Twitter thread about judge with covid

  This is a Twitter thread about a judge with Covid and several people commenting about the judicial processes in their area.
• 
  2020-07

  Tweets from Inside a Prison 07/26-08/01/2020 by Railroaded Underground

  These images show the Tweets of an incarcerated person sharing their experience during the Covid Pandemic using a contraband cell phone. This week he talks about the guards delivering food to their cells and leaving it on the floor, the inmates response, their lack of access to showering, the lack of compassion, encouraging people to vote and hold politicians accountable, medical emergencies, death, and the general feeling of anger.
• 
  2020-03-27

  Hyderabad Checkpoint Enforcement

  Violators of the curfew in Hyderabad, India, are struck with lathi sticks when stopped by police at a traffic checkpoint. The people who recorded the video are laughing because lockdown violators were warned not to venture outside after curfew.
• 
  2020-07-13

  Coronacoaster

  A meme shared on an instagram story without a source which reads: "Coronacoaster/ noun: the ups and downs of a pandemic. One day you're loving your bubble, doing work outs, baking banana bread and going for long walks and the next you're crying, drinking gin for breakfast and missing people you don't even like.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Line at the Bank

  This photo was shared on a public page. It shows the line for a bank that had just opened after the shelter-at-home order was lifted.
• 
  2020-06-11

  A Year for the History Books Comic

  A single panel comic suggesting that so much has happened in the last few months there will need to be several volumes of history written on 2020 where the proceeding years would only need one each.
• 
  2020-06-05

  I can't believe it's riot season already

  This meme is a comparison of U.S. Fall holiday jokes. Normally, we joke that in the fall the stores start changing out their holiday items the day after a holiday. For example; the day after thanksgiving stores will be stocked and ready for Christmas. This meme is joking that we have not even recovered from Covid-19 and another disaster has already begun.
• 
  2020-03-05

  Comic shows how important masks are during COVID-19

  People seeking for one night relationship would abandon his partner for bra used as facial masks.
• 
  2020-06-05

  Meme of March and June

  A meme that describes how people started to normalize the pandemic after some months in isolation.
• 
  2020-05-31

  What it's like being a Gen Z in 2020

  This image represents what it feels like to be waking up every week in quarantine. I submitted because I literally just wake up to do the same thing every day and it's exhausting
• 
  2020-03-29

  Payment Options: Now Include Toilet Paper

  A joke found on social media, showing an payment box from an online store which has been edited to include toilet paper as one of the accepted methods of payment in reference to the hoarding and resulting scarcity of toilet paper in stores.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Italian Wife Plays Recorder. Husband Is not Pleased.

  During the Corona outbreak, people in Italy sang in unison from their balconies. However, in this home, the husband was fed up with the noise and the awful recorder playing. So he lashed out. She yelled back at him. This shows how tensions in a marriage were greatly heightened by being forced to spend 24 hours a day with each other, seven days a week.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Humorous Schedule in Quarantine

  At first, people in quarantine didn't know what to do with themselves. This is one person's humorous schedule of his or her day. It shows the boredom and emotional toll of being isolated.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Quarantine Snacks

  During the quarantine period, people often ate a lot. This is a humorous meme about the snacking.
• 
  04/18/2020

  Kath Day-Knight's guide to isolation

  I found this really funny. It’s a very Australian Covid19 meme, using screengrabs from Kath & Kim, an iconic Australian TV show. Part mockumentary, part sitcom, the show’s eponymous characters are an outrageous mother-daughter duo who live in the fictional outer suburb of Fountain Gate. On reflection, the boredom, banality and mini-dramas of suburban life are actually a strangely perfect parallel to our lives in lockdown. Many of us feel like we are going slightly loopy. We may spend unusual amounts of time engaged in mindless activities around the house or garden. We used to squeeze thirty minutes of exercise or a trip to the supermarket into our busy schedules. Now we shape our weeks around these events. Once allowed to drink and smoke in the world’s bars and beer gardens, we are now, like Kath, forced to uncork the chardonnay night after night (or, let's face it, midday) in our own kitchens. Upon discovering this meme, I had been spending a lot of time drifting around the garden gazing at trees from different angles, watching birds and trying to speak to my chickens (Kath 4). My friend’s brother was sitting on an exercise ball in a work Zoom meeting, and a colleague asked him, “Are you sitting on an exercise ball?” He didn’t realise he had been bouncing up and down (Kath 1). Another friend has been on a reading craze in lockdown, devouring about one book per day-and-a-half (Kath 3). Which Kath are you today? #HUM402
• 
  2020-05-23

  Return of the Paper

  A photograph of bathroom tissue in stock on store shelves. An indicator that the initial panic that consumed the United States is passing, with a humorous twist.
• 
  2020-05-23

  The Original Social Distancing

  A humorous account of "social distancing" in a bygone era. Intended to be satire.
• 
  2020-03-20

  "Government bird battery meme"

  This image is a meme about a popular joke made at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic that there was not really a virus and it was just a government ploy to get everyone to stay inside in order to change the batteries in the electronic birds.
• 
  2020-05-02

  "Miliary doctor meme"

  It is a meme showing military doctors being upset that a specific medicine that is very commonly prescribed to soldiers for an array of ailments is being shown to be useless against the Coronavirus.
• 
  2020-04-28

  "Inside Joke Dog Meme"

  It is a humorous meme using word play to joke about the pandemic.
• 
  05/01/2020

  Military covid-19 meme

  It is a military meme making a joke of combat engineers protecting the infantry. #ArizonaStateUniversity #HST580
• 
  03/18/2020

  Toilet paper seed starter

  This is a common way to start avocado plants but in a time when toilet paper cannot be found anywhere someone thought it would be funny to suggest we could all grow our own toilet paper using this method.
• 
  03/18/2020

  Charmin Farmin

  Toilet paper became very hard to find as the pandemic set it to the US. This meme was very humorous when it came across my Facebook feed.
• 
  03/18/2020

  Stay Home for Us

  This image shows hospital workers expressing their wish for the public to stay home to lessen the number of people that would contract covid and become their patients. Basically asking people to "flatten the curve". This was the phrase that became the tag line for the second half of March.
• 
  05/20/2020

  Threat Levels in the U.K.

  The British mentality of keeping a "stiff upper lip" is legendary. This piece pokes fun at the way the British have handled various monumental events throughout history and how they relate to the current crisis being faced. Originally found on the website imgur.com, the meme seems to be playing off of an older joke found at https://www.eetimes.com/england-raises-security-level-from-miffed-to-peeved/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F#
• 
  04/05/2020

  Stay Healthy, Wichita

  A shopping center marquee wishing passersby good health as COVID-19 makes its way to Wichita. Aaron Peterka, Northeastern University
• 
  03/18/2020

  Doctor asking us to stay home

  This image, and others like it, began circulating my social media feeds around mid March in reaction to people not wanting to stay home. The doctors were putting their lives on the line to save those that became ill and the least we could do was stay home. The theory being that if we all stayed home then there would be less people infected and the rush of covid patients would be slowed. I personally took the stay at home order/ask very seriously. *This image appeared in my Facebook feed. It shows a doctor holding a sign asking everyone to stay home.
• 
  04/29/2020

  Let a Smile Be Your Calling Card

  Hanging in the window of a home in a west Wichita neighborhood, this smiley-face flag remained a constant fixture throughout the state-ordered lockdown. Its owners removed it after May 4, when state officials began easing lockdown restrictions. *Aaron Peterka, Northeastern University