SEATTLE — How are you coping with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic? What memories will stick out in your mind when the stay-at-home order is lifted?
Those are just some of the questions the Washington State Historical Society is asking Washingtonians to think about as the coronavirus pandemic continues to be felt around the world.
The WSHS is working to collect your memories of the pandemic to use in the future, as this is an event that will be talked about for years to come, similar to the Spanish Flu of 1918.
"Future Washingtonians are going to want to know what happened during this pandemic. They're going to wonder how we coped with the suddenly vacated office buildings, closed restaurants, and curtailed services," said the WSHS on its website. "They'll want to know stories of personal consequences such as canceled graduations, postponed weddings, and school closures. They'll be curious about what we did during the Stay Home/Stay Healthy orders, and how we managed to come together to help one another."
The WSHS collects and preserves artifacts as cultural "data points." Below are some of the items they're hoping to collect related to the coronavirus pandemic:
- digital content, for example, screenshots of COVID-19 related web pages, emails, memes on social media
- audio recordings
- videos (click here for an example)
- photos
- written anecdotes or observations
- anything related to the coronavirus pandemic and your experience that you think would be interesting to someone ten, twenty, or one hundred years from now
If you're interested in submitting your content, you can send it to digitalarchive@wshs.wa.gov.
The WSHS said it would also be interested in physical objects, as well if you have any. You can send a note to the same email above and explain what you have and they will get back in touch with you to arrange a delivery method.