ABOYNE – The Wellington County Museum and Archives (WCMA) is asking residents to submit records that document their personal experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We encourage you to share your story with us during this unprecedented moment in history,” states an April 17 press release from the county.
Wellington Place administrator Janice Hindley said everyone has been impacted by the pandemic in different ways.
“Diaries, journals, oral histories, images, recordings, and similar materials will help us tell stories of this unprecedented time in history,” Hindley stated.
Officials have highlighted several items in the museum’s collection that relay the importance of personal accounts in documenting history.
“Keep a diary, like Nellie Short of West Garafraxa Township, who commented on daily life on a farm in Wellington County during the World War II,” officials say.
“Take a video, like Leroy Massecar, who filmed everyday life in towns throughout Wellington County in the late 1940s.”
Gathering information about the COVID-19 pandemic in Wellington County “will be important for people to understand this period of our history,” officials say.
The museum and archives is seeking a variety of records (including, but not limited to: diaries, photographs, drawings, videos or scrapbooks) and is asking residents to consider:
- how has this pandemic changed your daily routine? (e.g. going to school, working from home, etc.);
- if you are a frontline worker, what have you experienced? Challenges?
- if you have children, what they doing to pass the time in isolation?
- what are you feeling?
- if you are a business owner, how has your business been affected by or adapted to the current circumstances?
- what are you doing to help your community? (e.g. sewing masks, making “porch deliveries” of groceries to neighbours, etc.); and
- how are you staying connected by social distancing? (e.g. video chats with family and friends, texting, emailing, calls, social media, etc.).
For more information, or to donate items, contact archivist Karen Wagner at karenw@wellington.ca.
