Items

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  2020-03-13

  How I got involved with A Journal of the Plague Year

  In March 2020, I was working with two other history graduate students on an oral history project of an international non-profit agency. We'd conducted several interviews, and had some scheduled for the week of Spring Break, March 9-13. COVID-19 turned into a real thing that week; the number of cases seemed to be escalating, schools and universities were starting to shut down, all capped off on Wednesday, March 11, with the World Health Organization declaring that a global pandemic was underway. I had an oral history interview scheduled in downtown Phoenix late in the morning of Friday the 13th. I doubted whether the interview would really go forward, but had not gotten the word that it was cancelled. I booked a rideshare to head downtown for the interview. As we were headed down the freeway, a rather freakish thunderstorm started, unusual for that time of year. When I was about halfway downtown, I finally got the word that the interview was cancelled. To not waste the ride, I re-directed the driver to the Arizona Historical Society in north Tempe, where I needed to pick up some things for some other work I was doing. The historical society was open, but there were very few people there. I picked up what I needed, and decided to walk from there across the river to campus, where I could meet my wife and get a ride home. As I left, the storm clouds were pretty dramatic, and I took the attached photo. On my walk I crossed the Mill Avenue bridge and passed Tempe Beach Park. Workers were taking down the tents and other equipment for the St. Patrick's day festival, which the city had just cancelled. I got to my wife's office, and we went home. As it happened, my wife was on her last day before moving to a position at another department at ASU. She reported there Monday morning and was sent home with everyone else in her office by noon. Also, my son was home for Spring Break from the University of Arizona that week, and he never went back that semester. When I got home that Friday, I found that my colleagues on the oral history project and I had gotten emails from Drs. Mark Tebeau and Catherine O'Donnell about a new project, which they were calling "A Journal of the Plague Year." The idea was to start a historical archive of what we could already see was an event of significant historical impact. This archive would come from the contributions of ordinary people, not content selected by archivists. I was happy to jump over to this new project. It gave me a new project for the semester, but above all it was very interesting work on a very innovative project. Over the next few weeks, I started working with the team curating the new collection, which grew rapidly to thousands of items. The number of volunteers expanded beyond ASU, and I found myself working with people from other institutions around the world. That Friday the 13th stands out for me as the day the pandemic closed everything down, but also opened up opportunities.
• 
  2021-04-25

  Matthew Williams

  This is the end results from my experiences as an intern with the Journal of the Plague Year archive
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  2021-05-22

  Ruby Lee Bell JOTPY Portfolio

  The JOTPY archives rapidly developed while the Covid-19 pandemic was still new for all of us. I was one of the original interns who joined HST580 as the class, and the archives were being developed. Although, I am not interested in pursuing public history as a career, I was hoping to learn a little bit about public history so I could share what I learned with my own students. Through the internship I gained experience in curating, data collection, addressing silences, community outreach, ethics, and producing oral histories. One of my passions during the internship has been documenting social justice issues in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic locked us all away inside and pulled the day-to-day agenda away. It became unavoidable during the pandemic but to pay attention to the realities in the States, even those realities some of us were able to comfortably ignore before. For many, social justice issues in America surpassed the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic. I personally felt an urgency to record the pluralities of the pandemic and the fight for equality in the United States within the archive. The Social Justice collection within the archive grew with submissions from all backgrounds and walks of life. They shed light on both the pandemic and social justice, and how it affected them. I also worked with a team to create the Social Justice Voices in North America exhibition. The collection was designed to amplify the voices of those who fought for social justice during the pandemic. This experience has taught me many skills that I am able to bring my students as an educator. I now understand the large-scale collaborative effort that a rapid response archive requires. I can explain to my students the ethics of information collection, what silences are, and how public historians of today work hard to bridge the gaps in archival accessibility, and this was not always so. This experience has been more fulfilling than I originally expected. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to make close connections with other interns. I have learned so much from them. I hope to stay in contact with them.
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  2020-09-10

  Documenting the Experiences of Black America during the COVID-19 Pandemic

  This story, from the Harvard Gazette, features the work of two friends -Tracie Jones & Sarah DeMott- as they try to curate the experiences of black Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. Their collective effort resulted in Black America and COVID-19; a library guide that seeks to serve as a historical database for stories about the impact of the pandemic on African American communities. Information and material included in the database ranges from oral histories, podcasts, blogs, and links to webinars.
• 
  03/24/2020

  Chelsie Walker Oral History, 2020/03/24

  In response to COVID-19, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science launched the mini-series, "Cultural Insights: Interviews in the Creative Sector," to highlight colleagues and professionals working in the same or similar field of museum professionals.