PEABODY — The coronavirus pandemic has affected millions and millions of people worldwide who have had to adjust to the “new normal.”
Now, there is a way for people to share their individual stories and personal life experiences of how they are living through these unprecedented times and how the pandemic has affected their everyday lives.
The Peabody Institute Library, Peabody Historical Society and Museum, and Peabody Access Television (PAT) have launched a new initiative entitled “COVID Chronicles.” The initiative’s mission is to collect, preserve and share the experiences of daily life in Peabody during the COVID-19 crisis.
Good or bad, happy, humorous or sad, Peabody Historical Society and Museum Assistant Curator Nora Bigelow said COVID Chronicles wants to hear Peabody’s stories. From the early days of quarantine and lockdown to venturing back out to grocery stores and restaurants again; standing in lines; stockpiling supplies (some would say hoarding) like toilet paper, pasta, frozen foods and pet supplies; stepping away from hectic lives by taking back many day-to-day aspects of life, like taking walks, mowing your own lawn again and cooking family sit-down dinners.
“We are all really excited about this project. COVID Chronicles will serve an important social and historical purpose now and as future generations look back,” said Bigelow. “Looking back we have so little on the Spanish flu in 1918 and we don’t want that to happen with coronavirus. I just hope people want to share their stories because we all know that everyone has a story to tell about how this has affected them.”
PAT Executive Director Camille Bartlett said the seeds for COVID Chronicles had already been sown early in the pandemic when PAT decided to canvas the city and conducted Zoom interviews with randomly selected people.
“We had actually started videos and photos shortly after COVID hit where we went around and did Zoom interviews with a bunch of people to start documenting how life had changed,” she said. “It really was just a cross section of people that turned into this project. We reached out to the Historical Society and asked for any materials they had from the Spanish flu to do a piece on that, but they had nothing. They wanted to make sure that, God forbid this happens, we had something documented.”
Bartlett said the goal is to create searchable archives at the state and national levels that people can use as a resource. Bartlett is also hoping to present its collection at some sort of exhibit, perhaps virtual if an in-person event is not possible.
“We just don’t know at this point, but we hope people will contribute to it,” said Bartlett. “We not only have these interviews and photos, but we have government meetings, too. These are all things that are reflective of the way that life is different, obvious things like Zoom meetings, the drive-by birthday parties that we’ve done for a lot of the kids in the community, even graduation.”
There are two ways people can contribute to COVID Chronicles. People can share stories, upload photographs and videos, artwork and any other types of media on the library website, https://www.peabodylibrary.org/covidchronicles/.
People can also share their stories directly by calling the Historical Society at 978-896-6012 and leaving their stories in a voicemail message.
