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2020-04
The Historical Research Project
Specifically, the Covid-19 pandemic inadvertently prevented me from my continued work in the Research Department at the Denver Public Library, as well as my volunteer work with the School Tours program at the History Colorado Center. However, it has given me an opportunity to conduct a history research project of my own choosing. I have had an ongoing interest in a writing project on the Domesday Book, which was a survey conducted in medieval England in AD 1085-1088. The repeated news stories on fellow Americans and citizens from around the world choosing to become interested in artwork and/or other projects while presented with an abundance of personal time due to Covid-19 restrictions has inspired me to begin this project. I was able to obtain a copy of an English translation of the Domesday Book and, though my graduate level academic work has not been postponed in any way, I have found time to begin this work. I will always remember that I began this passionate project because of the Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions, it will occupy my time far beyond Covid-19. -
2020-11-01
Volunteer work during a pandemic
Not only was 2020 the year of the pandemic, it was also the year of one of the biggest elections in history. I am a political science and history major at ASU and I wanted to volunteer for a campaign. I had a few friends who were working on Mayor Kate Gallego's campaign and through them I was able to volunteer for the mayor herself. Normally you would meet with everyone and do volunteer work together but since it was a pandemic we had to all do it over zoom at home. Most of the volunteer work was making calls and helping voters. I got the opportunity to send my ballot in early and all of us who voted put our stickers on our laptops. Now every time I go to open my computer I am reminded of all the hard work I put in during the pandemic. -
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. -
2020-02-24
My Coronavirus Experience
In the beginning of the pandemic, I immediately realized how a large portion of the public was not focused on the virus itself, but the racial controversy of the virus' origin. This was unnerving to the core, because it is a fact that COVID-19 came from China. While it was unacceptable to accept this as fact, MERS literally stands for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. It is clear that there was a pro-CCP agenda being pushed in the background when propagating the "COVID Safety" spiel. As time went on, more and more inconsistencies began popping up. Beauty and barber shops closed, but Nancy Pelosi is more than welcome to get her hair done. Masks become required to enter any building or participate in society at all, but when the new President was sworn in, the spectators were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and masks were few and far between. What my story says about the pandemic is that while we may have had a real potential global crisis, I believe things were skewed, twisted, and flipped so that it is most convenient for those who hold the power, and not done in the best interest of the American people. An example of this in real life was how the Los Angeles Lakers, Ritz Carlton, and Bank of America (per store) were able to get PPP loans, drain the pool of PPP money, and leave small business owners fighting for crumbs. I have linked a Washington Post article below that expands on the PPP loan problem and how our government failed small business. The pandemic I fear will have long-lasting, Orwellian effects on our society in the sense that those in power will continue to use fear mongering to control the public through COVID. Even though a vast majority of the population has already had it and are building antibodies, Western European-style, 1940s era vaccination cards are beginning to circulate. I fear these cards will be the new "gold star" or "Scarlet Letter'', except those without it would be barred from society, rather than those with it. In my opinion, COVID today is what AIDS was in the eighties. Lots of unanswered questions, lots of fear, and government intervention so that free thinking is minimized. These three, and you have a perfect recipe for controlling the masses. Both diseases were politicized to death, and public opinion of the disease swung back and forth with politicization. If AIDS was blown up to the proportion that COVID was, I couldn't imagine the backlash the political and science communities would get from a certain demographic of people who are very vocal and have a statistically higher likelihood of contracting HIV. I hypothesize that pandemic would turn into pandemonium. With that, my experience during quarantine was as expected. Mental health suffered due to lack of human interaction and ability to go outside, and physical health suffered due to inability to go outside and lack of motivation which was connected to mental health. The main positive thing from the pandemic I can identify is the performance of my stock portfolio. Even though I lost my job due to COVID, I was still able to afford rent, food, and supplies to stay hunkered down in my new $900/month prison for my three month sentence. Another big positive from the quarantine was my savings. The pandemic helped me realize how much unnecessary or emotional spending I do. It helped me point out lots of bad habits I have so I can work on fixing them. Things like spending money when I'm sad, and identifying vices that hold me back in my day-to-day. While the pandemic brought a lot of negatives to me and the world around me, I believe there are some positive things to take away from it. Opening your mind to more than what the government feeds you, appreciating every moment you have, embracing new hobbies, and learning how to maneuver through change. These are all things the pandemic has taught me, but if I had the option, I wouldn't do it again. In terms of being a part of history, simply by living you are a part of history. I was at Sloan-Kettering in NYC with my family getting a life-extending cancer treatment for my father when 9/11 happened. He was one of three patients that day because while in surgery, the first plane hit the towers. The rest of the patients to be seen that day were canceled. I suppose the point I am trying to make is that history is subjective. 9/11 wasn’t 9/11 to me. 9/11 was the day I was blessed with enough time to make some foundational memories of my father before he passed. It can be argued that since I have been invested in GameStop since November, I was a part of history there too. I went to the Game 7 Cardinals vs. Red Sox World Series Game in Fenway Park. The game that broke the Bambino Curse. Again, it could be argued that I was a part of history there too, except my three year old self was asleep for the last two innings. History is subjective, and every day, everyday people like you and I make history. Historians and memoirists will use these events in the future to write articles, make movies and tv shows, write books, and extrapolate many other kinds of art from it. However, most often historical stories are told through a lens of subjectivity, and because of that, eventually all history becomes skewed to the point where it is indistinguishable from fable. -
2020-05
Weekly Planner
Attached is a picture of my planner from May of last year. I have always tried to keep a journal of some sort but over the past few years entries in my actual journal have become more sporadic, and I sometimes feel bad that I'm not documenting my life better. But I have found that I keep my memories and experiences in different ways. I keep post-its and planners and notes from past classes, all of which contain some view into a different time of my life. This page in my planner was probably drawn during class, or while waiting for another class to start. The goldfish stickers were there before I wrote the words around them, I'm pretty sure. Looking back now I could say maybe the goldfish and the misconception about their memory is a comment on the way isolation and lack of enrichment affects memory, but really I just had them nearby and thought they were cool. At this point the monotony of quarantine and online school and being out of work made a planner feel kind of superfluous and each page was less like an organized look at my week and more like a dumping ground for my thoughts. The speech bubbles near the fish read: "(I love you guys)" "What?" "I said let's count down so we can all sign off together!" Since moving back to my parent's house in March I haven't seen any of my friends in person. It's been nearly a year of movie nights over discord, all of us counting down and trying to press play at the same time despite the latency. There's a certain intimacy of talking to someone late into the night from my bedroom, surrounded by artifacts of my high school life. I'm afraid for myself and afraid for my friends but we don't talk about the big scary thing looming over all of us. It's been nearly a year and the space in between now and February feels both infinite and microscopic. I am still, but time goes on. I remember that I wrote "One day I will be disappointed (spelled incorrectly) I did not document history better" later in the week. Memory is fragile and I want to preserve it the best I can but lately I'm too tired to take down the details of each day. Maybe this vague collection of my thoughts will be valuable to future me, but I won't know until then so I'll hold onto it anyway. -
2020-10-28
How this year’s antiracism protests differ from past social justice movements
This interview with Peniel Joseph compares the protests of the past with current social justice movements. He also discusses current statistics and public opinion. He views this as an opportunity to achieve real change. -
2020-03-27
Social Distancing and Quarantine Were Used in Medieval Times to Fight the Black Death
A medieval Italian legislation document, dating from 1377, reveals that social distancing and quarantine measures were practiced during the bubonic plague. The article describes what measures seaport towns took to screen and isolate ships before their goods and crews could enter these populations Also, it discusses the advent of plague hospitals, how the word quarantine came to be, and 14th century public health structure. As far as medicine and technology has advanced over the centuries, we are still using some of the same practices that were used seven centuries ago. It illustrates how much we can still learn from the past. -
2021-01-29
Keeping Alberta Rat Free
Alberta has been historically known for two things, number one being the oil and gas industry, the second being Alberta’s lack of rats. Alberta historically prides itself on being a ‘rat free’ province through extermination campaigns throughout the whole province in order to maintain the mantle; and to protect Alberta’s agricultural sectors. Because of this legacy, Albertan pandemic skeptics on my home town’s Facebook page posted this meme in reference to people reporting large gatherings, and businesses which violate quarantine restrictions. Underneath this photo, many people who thought alike had a good chuckle and patted themselves on the back for keeping Alberta ‘rat free.’ However, these pandemic skeptics forget that Alberta became ‘rat free’ by people reporting sightings of rats, using the local 310-RATS hotline which alerted exterminators to the presence of rats throughout the province. This item matters to me in that it is how pandemic skeptics impose falsified history, and possibly Albertan nationalism to justify their own behaviour as somehow patriotic. I know I’m reading into this too deeply, but I find it somewhat funny how ignorant these people are to the true reality of our ‘rat free’ title, that we achieved it by reporting sightings of rats which posed a danger to our entire province; just how these people are posing a threat to the health of our entire province by opening businesses and getting together in large groups. This is mainly supposed to serve as a window into the Albertan experience of the Pandemic, with specific interest to the anti-masker’s opinions and thoughts on social media. I want to similarly point out, that I wasn’t the only person who noticed that Alberta was made ‘rat free’ by ratting on rats in this photo’s comment section. -
2020-10
Family Inheritance
My grandmother passed in July 2020, a few months after the Covid-19 pandemic began in the United States. She left behind a lot of miscellaneous things, including a number of family heirlooms that I have inherited. When we were packing up her trailer and storage containers, we had totes upon totes filled with family documents, awards, newspaper clippings, objects, and photographs. I feel as if I have my own personal archive of our family within these totes. I can't help being emotional about these things I now possess and grateful that my grandmother was a family-history hoarder. I can carry her memory on by taking care of them. One of the various objects was this letter/certificate in a frame, giving thanks and recognition to my great-grandfather for his military service after he had passed. I don’t know much about the paper itself, it seems pretty common and not a unique letter, but it was something nice and surprising to find within the boxes. -
2021-01-20
Plague Year
The Plague Year outbreak started in September 1665. The plague killed 7,165 people in one week. The Great Plague lasted for 18 months. At its worst, in September of 1665, the plague killed 7,165 people in one week. Around September of 1666, the great outbreak ended. The Great Fire of London, which happened on 2-6 September 1666, may have helped end the outbreak by killing many of the rats and fleas who were spreading the plague. The Plague killed an estimated 25 million people, almost a third of the continent's population. The Black Death lingered on for centuries, particularly in cities. Outbreaks included the Great Plague of London (1665-66), in which 70,000 residents died. -
2021-01-17
Think Big, Dream Big
As of January 12, 2021, I began my final semester as an undergraduate at Arizona State University. Four wonderful years consisting of academic rigor, late-nights, and wrestling with the not so smooth transition to online courses. Admittedly, I still have reservations about online instruction; though, I am warming up to the idea and have had success so far in staying engaged and enthusiastic about learning. With that being said, my immediate goal for the year 2021 is to continue my education and pursue a Master's in History here at ASU. At this crucial juncture in my academic career, I have spoken about it over the past year to my close friends, family, and personal mentors, that the idea of not applying would be a step in the wrong direction. I believe I am ready for all the challenges and opportunities that come with an advanced degree. And so, over the coming months, I will continue to establish vital connections, build upon my existing support groups, and plan on starting Fall 2021 at ASU as a graduate student. Thinking of a future after 2021 has also frequently crossed my mind. I have two prospective PhD programs in mind, but I hope to add more to the list. -Solidarity -
2021-01-16
Enjoying home life
This is a brief entry describing some of my favorite personal things to come about from the pandemic. There were many difficulties faced, but still, experiences to enjoy and appreciate. -
2020-12-24
Adaptations
This says that as time has went on, people have made more inventions and adaptations to help secure the safety, convenience, and success of as many people as possible. The photo shows a doctor during a plague in the 1700’s with the type of masks that most doctors wore at the time. The survival rate of the epidemic then was much lower than it is now. Now we wear masks that are easy to use in our every day life and are generally very convenient. This is important to me because it displays how our society has learned to adapt to new challenged and that if we can get through this pandemic we can get through anything. -
2020-12-29
HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 88
CANCEL CULTURE 2020 -
2020-11-26
Liberal and Conservative governments have historically underfunded the people of Nunavut. With COVID-19 outbreaks, these historic inequities place them at increased risk.
Reddit post with video of New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh discussing growing COVID-19 crisis in Nunavut. -
2020-12-10T09:31:50
My Perspective Of Life.
I remember the day Friday March 13th clear as day. I do because this is the day that literally changed everyones lives. I was in school and Just thinking to myself "cmon just like 20 more minutes of class and then I'm done for the day." Rights as I get out of class the school has been notified that the state of California will go into a state of emergency. The tv's just lit up with the hazard sign. Everyone in my grade just starts going bonkers because us kids had no idea what was happening. I left school just thinking what the world is. Then it was the weekend. you might've thought this was a normal weekend but, no. Saturday we hear from the school saying we will not be having regular school days anymore. Now this, this hit me hard. Everyones thinking whats going on whats happening. No answer. At the start of 2020 everyone said "oh this is going to be our year nothing bad's going to happen." We seriously just jinxed it. How could quite possibly the worst pandemic happen right now? Jut why now? Why cant it happen when Im older or something? These questions wont get answered. I kid you not the past what 8 months of been extremely boring. I know kids say this a lot but Im sure pretty much everyone will agree on this one. Have you ever watched the "Simpsons"?? Well, if you haven't already got caught up they predicted another event. Im not joking. They had workers working in a factory in China and they had a bat that was contaminated and they shipped it to the united states for a project or something. They had the same bat concept as Covid 19. And that episode came out months before Covid or even a couple years. Search it up. June, July just went by so fast but also its like it slowed down reality at the same time. When august comes around school starts back up. It is the hardest time yet. Zoom classes all the time no going back to school.Okay, Im a huge Disney freak so you're gonna want to hear this. This is the third time in history in HISTORY that a multi billion theme park has closed. This is the first and the very first time Disneyland and every other Disney park has been closed for more than a day. This is history. Can you really believe that Covid has done all of this?? Oh, too any store or marketplace that sold toilet paper in March, April, and May were all sold out because everyone was so panicked that they couldn't restock on stuff like that. Can you believe my generation seriously that they would run out of toilet paper?!?!? Then on that note, may 2020 rest in those that are essential workers and my generation. -
2020-12-08
Jared Walpurgis Oral History, 2020/12/08
Three months ago, Jared and I conducted an interview talking about our personal reactions and experiences with COVID. Now, he provides a shocking update as well as answers to how we can relate themes of anti-masks and anti-vaccines to past pandemics. -
12/03/2020
Hannah Wolfenson Oral History, 12/03/2020
In this interview, I meet with Hannah again after several months, to ask questions surrounding her experiences with Covid-19, as well as how a course on the history of pandemics has shifted her mindset. -
12/08/2020
Emre Muftu Oral History, 12/08/2020
I have interviewed my classmate about how his perception of Covid-19 has changed. -
2020-12-07
Connecting the Past to the Present
This is important to me because I see so many people disregard events of the past and assume we are so much better now. But that is not true as we all have flaws that we must work on. Flaws that many assume are ancient history and would no longer exist in 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/sep/29/women-better-off-far-from-equal-men https://globaledge.msu.edu/blog/post/54484/working-conditions-in-the-textile-indust -
12/08/2020
Erika Knox Oral History, 2020/12/08
We discussed our view on the COVID-19 pandemic after taking a semester-long history course on the history of global pandemics. -
2020-11-16
Queer History
Queer history is one often unknown sector of history designated to historians writing things such as "good friends" or "roommates" to muddy the waters when it comes to discussing queer individuals. In such examples, people who write to their "friend" of the same sex of their undying love for one another in a romantic sense would be played off not as lovers but "great friends". Another example would be the painting dubbed "Sappho and her Friend" where they are quite literally two women having sex. This Twitter thread goes through the ins-and-outs of bits of queer history that have been hidden and not much discussed for these aforementioned reasons. -
2020-12-07
Nolan Oral History 12/07/2021
A few questions that show how Nolan's thoughts of the pandemic have changed. -
2020-12-07
2020 Problems from the past
The problems of 2020 started from historical events. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2020/06/18/486480/covid-19-response-indian-country/ -
2020-12-07
Using Early American History to Interpret 2020 - HIS103 Final Project Assignment
This is the assignment instructions for the final project for HIS 103 (United States History to 1877) at Niagara University. Students have written essays about how contemporary people use early American history to influence their interpretations of 2020- The Plague Year. -
2020-12-07
History Repeating Itself
I wrote this exam for my History 103 class at Niagara University as my final project. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/learning-slavery-legacy-slave-trade-modern-society https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.1-2.0110?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents https://digpodcast.org/2020/01/26/slave-contraband-refugee-the-end-of-slavery-in-the-united-states/ -
12/06/2020
Emma Clifford Oral History 12/06/2020
I interview a fellow student at Northeastern University about her experience with the pandemic and we reflect how learning about past pandemics have given us a better perspective with Covid-19. -
2020-12-07
Utilizing American History to Understand Present Day Events
For my HIS 103 final project, I wrote an essay about how Americans utilize media platforms to draw connections between American history and current events. The similarities that contemporary Americans create reveal that while much has changed legally, our country continues to remain divided on the same topics. -
2020-12-02
Craig Short, Eshan Doshi, and Taryn Ross Oral History, 2020/12/02
This is the second installment of an interview between three college students taking a course on global pandemics. We ask each other about how our understanding of the current pandemic has changed as we learn more about past epidemic conditions, and assess how we could apply those lessons going forward. -
2020-11-29
International Businessman Oral History, 2020/11/29
IMPORTANT NOTE: My professor, Dr. Blake Jones, approved of the anonymity of my interview subject. My subject is highly private and wishes to maintain that anonymity for business and personal reasons. Max is a businessman from the United States. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business and holds an M.B.A. He has been conducting business in the electronics industry for over 40 years. He has a wife, adult children, and dogs. Max has been heavily involved in Asian markets in his business for multiple decades. He was a vital part of the explosion of Japanese electronics onto the American market in the 1980's, the rapid introduction of the Internet in the 1990's, and has most recently been working to implement the next generation of lighting displays for consumer electronics. Max’s life and work has been one that has been vital to the development of the world’s technological progress in the past 40 years, although he is not a household name. Max has lived through multiple important events and has a unique perspective on all of them as a businessman, agent of free enterprise, and average American providing for his family. He holds several unique opinions on current events and is not afraid to state them plainly. In this interview, he reflects on the difficulties and silver linings that COVID-19 has thrown at him in his work and personal life. -
2020-12-01
Pandemic to Historians
The pandemic of 2020 has brought to light the flaws of American history. -
2020-10-15
Jewish Melbourne: Kadimah event with Michael Gawenda and Mark Leibler
Given lockdown restrictions, online programming was necessary for Jewish organisations. "Join Michael Gawenda – journalist, Yiddishist and author of The Powerbroker – and Mark Leibler AC – Jewish lawyer and community leader – in conversation with Kadimah board member and Sir Zelman Cowen Centre director Professor Kathy Laster. Why are so many Jews attracted to the legal profession? What shaped Mark Leibler’s – and so many other prominent Jewish lawyers’ – commitment to Indigenous people and causes? Was Mark able to shed his natural caution as a lawyer to open up for the biography? Is there a connection between pro bono contributions and Jewish values? For biographer and subject, how is it possible to reconcile the professional, public and personal responsibilities of a distinguished and multilayered life in the law? The renowned lawyer, his biographer and the academic unpack the deep, multi-layered influences on a formidable career and life." -
2020-10-19
Jewish Melbourne: Melton online programming
During the lockdown Melton School turned to online programming in order to continue classes. This is one example of a course which they ran. -
2020-11-13
Who would of ever thought I would be writing this lesson.
Today, I sit at my desk and I write a lesson to share with my students. The lesson is about Covid 19. I am asking them to become historians for this very web site and archive their own experiences for future generations. I am sad that my students must do this but so very happy that their perspective will be part of history. So often in history, only the perspectives of a few have been recorded. And there is a danger in that. So the fact that my 8th grade students can be part of history and shape the perspective of future generations is powerful. -
2020-04-01
"The Coronavirus Is Bringing Back a 1,000-Year-Old ‘Cheese’ in Japan" - Atlas Obscura
Like other countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan is experiencing a rising interest in learning new cooking recipes, particularly local culinary traditions. In a short article for Atlas Obscura, Makiko Itoh looks at how the recent cooking craze has hit Japan through the lens of a particular dairy product, known as so. Recently, the Japanese dairy industry had a problem with being unable to sell its surplus milk supply overseas due to the transit disruptions created by the pandemic. In response, Japanese consumers were encouraged to purchase more milk to save the industry and to use them for local recipes. One recipe in particular, known as so, has gained increased interest from Japanese foodies. According to Itoh, so is a cheese-like dairy product that was first created during the Nara and Heian periods of Japanese history, when dairy farming was at its height. So was popular among aristocrats, and even the Japanese emperors of the time were avid consumers. However, according to Itoh, the rise of the Kamakura Shogunate and the samurai warrior class caused the popularity of so and other dairy products to decline markedly. So making was recently revived by foodies and history buffs, who have helped popularize the recipe again for new consumers and amateur cooks. -
1918-09-22
Flu file Artifact paper
It is about the Spanish flu during 1918 and how it is similar to our current pandemic. -
2020-09-10
HIST-W 300 Professor Peralta Student Interview
This was a project assigned by Professor peralta to better understand how we could interview a person about food and see how the COVID-19 virus has affected their relationship with it. -
2020-05-31
The history book of 2020
HIST30060 - submitted as part of an assessment for a history subject. A significant number of the memes I found commented on the incredible number of ‘disasters’ or disruptions that have had a global impact this year (suggesting that this number is far more than anything to occur in the last decade). The disasters referenced in these memes concern a range of instances including the Australian Bushfires, the “threat of World War III” (with the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by drone strike), the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Murder Hornets, the explosion in Beirut and the American bushfires. The ‘disasters’ or global events that feature in the memes span almost every continent and every sphere from environmental (e.g. the bushfires), the social (e.g. the American race riots), the economic, the political (e.g. the explosion in Beirut and subsequent investigation into corruption) and health (e.g. the pandemic). This particular meme suggests that the study of this year will be an arduous task for history students of the future. -
2020-11-08
Old money, New money
HIST30060 It might not come as a surprise for people to learn that I, a history major, likes old things! Throughout this pandemic, I have become a frequent visitor of Etsy, searching for interesting vintage items to purchase. I have come out the other side of this pandemic with several old books, a set of 1950s cosmetic pots, a leather satchel and two old measuring tapes. Of course, in addition to things I have already collected over the years, including fossilised ammonites, more old books (including two copies of Shakespeare from the 1790s) and a pocket telescope from the 18th century. I feel like many people have indulged themselves during the pandemic, especially given the increased payments from the government allowing some people to have disposable income. And without having daily expenses such as public transport fares, for the first time I have been able to purchase some of these items without feeling guilty about myself for doing so. It makes me think about what type of things people do to cope during times of crisis. For me, clearly, it was some retail therapy, buying things that I enjoy. I am sure that many people will relate to that, considering the sheer amount of parcels the post office has to deal with from online shopping. I had always admired history from afar, but knowing that I can physically handle objects that have their own stories to tell has just reinvigorated my love for every chapter in the large book we call history. -
2020-03-28
Future History Teachers
I am hoping to become a high school history teacher and this meme rang true for me. I cannot wait to teach 2020 to future students, it will probably be a class in itself! -
2020-11-02
South End Resilience
My name is Chandler Munson and I am a first-year student at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Since I am apart of the NUin program, I am currently living in the Westin Hotel in Copley Square and am taking History of Boston as a culture class. Something that I've learned over the course of this semester is how to be resilient. The city of Boston has had to overcome so much with the current state of the Pandemic, yet people are still living their lives and bettering themselves. For my history class, I had to research the impact of Irish Immigration in Boston today, so I went with my group members to the South End. The South End was mostly inhabited by the Irish, so we went around finding historical sites and researching ways that the city has changed. One of the buildings that stood out to me was the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The Cathedral is a place of worship and was especially important to the Irish Catholics when they first came to Boston. When I saw the Cathedral in person, I was taken aback. It is truly a beautiful building with perfect landscaping and many religious statues. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Cathedral had to shut its doors and hold online services. This upset many who think of religious places as their safe places and where they can truly be themselves. After many months of following the social distancing and mask guidelines, the Cathedral is finally open to the public. Of course, there is limited capacity due to COVID-19, but the community feels whole again. Visiting the South End really drove home the idea that America can overcome any challenge that it faces and that we will be back and better than ever soon. -
2020-11-05
Canada and the Pandemics
This presentation and interpretation focus on Canada during the Spanish Flu as well as COVID and how similar it is to what we are experiencing in 2020. It shows how different Canada reacted to both pandemics and what we can learn in the future. -
1918-11-16
Blame China for the Flue
In the article, the author states that the pandemic could be traced not to Spain but Asia; and that China was a breeder of all kinds of contagious diseases which might spread over the earth if they were not checked at their source. -
1918-09-28
September 29, 1918 Chicago Tribune Newspaper
The reason why I submitted this paper was to show the similarities between both the Spanish Flu and the current Covid-19 pandemic that we are going through. As philosopher George Santayana would say, "Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It." -
2020-07-16
Training Modules for The Covid-19 Oral History Project
This training module was designed for individuals who want to participate in conducting oral histories for The Covid-19 Oral History Project and JOTPY. -
2020-10-12
A Covid-19 July 4th, 2020
One of my favorite holiday rituals is to go to a park, lay a blanket down, enjoy a picnic with my circle of family and friends along with the many other groups who are also awaiting the start of the fireworks show. The aromas of barbecued items such as hot dogs, hamburgers, and corn wafting in the air mixing with other ethnic delights are reminders of the diversity of this country. I open the doors of my Jeep, connect my iPhone and select my July 4th playlist to share with the people around me. In the distance I hear other groups talking and commenting on the music; it's nice to have background music as the show begins. "What's a July 4th show without the good 'ole '1812 Overture'?" is a common remark. The attraction of the fireworks, at least to me, is being there to hear the reverberation and smell the sulphur as they explode in the air besides the visual display. Timing the music to the show, especially the finale, is my annual challenge; one that I've been somewhat successful several years in a row. This year's holiday was spent indoors, by myself. I just didn't have the energy or interest to go to the bother of barbecuing for just me. My friends and family were all hunkered down at their respective homes. To observe July 4th via TV was just not same. For me, there would be no physical sensation of the sounds or of the smells that are so closely associated with the holiday. So, I passed on recognizing July 4th as a holiday...it was just another Covid-19 day in the year 2020. -
2020-10-12
Sensory history contribution to COVID-19 Archive
These are the instuctions posted in Canvas for HST 643. Students enrolled in Global History Fall B at Arizona State University will all submit a story related to the pandemic and senory history -
1918-11-26
Spanish Flu Files
For a class assignment, I had to look through historical newspapers that discuss the Spanish Flu and connect it to the current COVID-19 pandemic. -
2020-06-01
Life During Covid-19 Digital Pop-Up Exhibition
Students in Dr. Michael J. Kramer's Digital Methods for Historical Projects seminar at SUNY Brockport share stories about one object from the spring of 2020 during the Covid-19 Pandemic, https://brockportkramer.com/covid19/. Alan Gowans—Getting Past Personal and Public Anxieties Carson Werner—The Day Baseball Stood Still Cecil Frazier—Double Standards Gilberto Diaz III—Memes of COVID-19 Education Jared Rosenberg—Diary From a Mini-tunnel Joe Lasky—The Twitch and the Rosary Jordan Aviles—Music and Other Necessary Items Joseph Massaro—Music as an Escape From (and Turn to) the New Abnormal Leslie Hoag—TikTok-ing History Connections Nate Mundt—Recognizing First Responders Ryan Gibbs—Am I Doing It Right? Samantha Symonds—Saving Lives or Saving the Economy? Sebastian Phipps—Living In a Twenty-First Century Pandemic Steven Willard—Brutal and Grim Realizations Will Secules—Bringing The Office Home -
2020-09-19
Spanish Influenza of 1918
It says that history repeats itself, so instead of trying to prevent plagues, we should learn how to control them.