Reflecting on the COVID archive
Title
Reflecting on the COVID archive
Description
Short handwritten reflection about the process of learning about and creating the COVID semester archive for HIST 376 with Professor Amy Sullivan and college archivist Ellen Holt-Werle
Creator
Lily Denehy, 2022
Date
05-03-2020
Language
English
Subject
Education
Text
Reflecting on the COVID archive
When we first started this project, I did not know what to put in it. I thought it meant finding "important" things from "important" people — like emails from the admin. I got all freaked out about finding the perfect 10 items. Then, one day in class, we had a whole discussion about what we could put in and someone said something about everyday things. Maybe I couldn't comprehend this because prior to this semester I had no experience with archives. After that I realized I'd been so caught up in trying to fins the perfect artifacts for the archive I'd neglected a lot of small but interesting things that had changed. Or maybe some things that feels unchanged or unimportant. When I came to that place of like "oh it just has to be something important/funny/interesting to me," I was able to immediately think of like 5 more items. But that's also what's hard about the archive. How do we empower people to see their experiences as valuable to the historical record? Even w/ this realization I don't feel as if I'm important. I think no one will care/look @ my contributions. It's really something to consider.
When we first started this project, I did not know what to put in it. I thought it meant finding "important" things from "important" people — like emails from the admin. I got all freaked out about finding the perfect 10 items. Then, one day in class, we had a whole discussion about what we could put in and someone said something about everyday things. Maybe I couldn't comprehend this because prior to this semester I had no experience with archives. After that I realized I'd been so caught up in trying to fins the perfect artifacts for the archive I'd neglected a lot of small but interesting things that had changed. Or maybe some things that feels unchanged or unimportant. When I came to that place of like "oh it just has to be something important/funny/interesting to me," I was able to immediately think of like 5 more items. But that's also what's hard about the archive. How do we empower people to see their experiences as valuable to the historical record? Even w/ this realization I don't feel as if I'm important. I think no one will care/look @ my contributions. It's really something to consider.
Files
Citation
ldenehy, “Reflecting on the COVID archive,” Macalester: Place and Community in a COVID Landscape, accessed May 16, 2024, https://dwlibrary.macalester.edu/spring2020/items/show/85.