Personalizing the pandemic

CHENEY - In the future, the way historians look at the coronavirus pandemic will depend a lot upon the amount and type of information they have access to.

Eastern Washington University Libraries is hoping to provide those researchers with a perspective not quite as cold as statistics and news articles have rendered the medical crisis that gripped the world in 2020 and beyond - a view of pandemic life from a more personal perspective.

"Life During Covid-19: Preserving Personal Pandemic Stories" is a digital collection of written and visual media being accumulated by University Archives designed to allow people to reflect upon their experience during the pandemic. These can run the gamut from relating experiences about remote learning, self-quarantining, changes interactions with friends and family, work, to helping others cope with impacts of the disease and exposure to social inequalities.

It's material meant to document the past year, and upcoming years as the nation and world moves through vaccinations against the virus and tries to recover economically and socially. It's also material the local archives don't necessarily have from the last time a virus disrupted our society on such a scale - the influenza pandemic in 1918.

University archivist Steve Bingo said it's important to have that personal perspective since it can illuminate events recorded in more traditional methods. As an example, Bingo pointed to a move by then-Cheney Normal School President Noah D. Showalter to ban off-campus travel by students during the holidays that year. There was an editorial about the move in the student newspaper, and a news item in the Cheney Free Press, but no other perspective.

"It would have been interesting to have a broader example of what it was like being hunkered down on campus," Bingo said.

University Archives is asking for submissions from EWU students, staff, faculty and alumni such as written memories like journal entries reflecting their life and thoughts during the pandemic. Creative works such as poetry, fiction or artwork depicting aspects of their experiences is also desired, as are photographs including selfies, staged photo representations or real life documentation of events.

Bingo said other universities are undertaking similar projects, such as Whitman University in Walla Walla which began blogging and collecting personal accounts in April 2020. Eastern Washington's project was initially brought up by University Relations, Bingo said, and was launched on March 16 this year.

There were a lot of pieces to put together, such as creating digital platforms to preserve the information while providing easy access, and a digital infrastructure to back up all of the information and keep it for a long time. Those wishing to contribute can do so by contacting University Archives directly at [email protected] or visiting the Pandemic Stories webpage and following the directions.

Doing so from the webpage does require having a Google account to complete the form, something that may require a bit of extra work for some, but is appreciated by others.

"The team working on this project realize that most everything feels more challenging during COVID, which makes the contributions people are willing to provide all the more appreciated," Bingo said.

And while the submissions are mainly for individuals directly associated with the university, there is an allowance for non-EWU groups to share their experiences. As an example, Bingo said there may be business owners who have unique and personal relationships with university students that may be worth capturing.

Regardless, all aspects of the past year and the years to come will likely prove important to defining our experiences with the coronavirus.

"It's hard to know what's going to be important for people 50, 100 years down the road," Bingo said. "It will be apparent to researchers as to what's documentation, and what's interpretation."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].