Close Menu
Berlin, Ocean Pines News Worcester County Bayside Gazette Logo Berlin, Ocean Pines News Worcester County Bayside Gazette

410-723-6397

Maryland Historical Society documents pandemic

By Greg Ellison

(April 9, 2020) While much of society focuses on the public health safety measures being considered and imposed during the covid-19 pandemic, the Maryland Historical Society is pursuing its “Collecting in Quarantine” initiative to capture in words and images the experiences of residents statewide.

Founded in 1844, the Maryland Historical Society serves as the principal repository of records and documents chronicling the state and is its longest continually operated cultural foundation.

Allison Tolman, Maryland Historical Society Vice President of Collections, said written and visual submissions of the challenges faced statewide during the covid-19 pandemic of 2020 are being sought.

“When the quarantine really started picking up pace, we turned to our collection to provide context for people,” she said. “As a history museum, that’s what we do all the time.”

Among the historical society’s collection, which includes more than 350,000 objects and roughly seven million printed volumes, are numerous artifacts documenting the 1918 Spanish Flu but scant details of more recent health scares.

“We have nothing from H1N1 swine flu or anything more recent,” she said. “In a hundred years [if] there’s another pandemic there’s nothing for anyone to look back on from the digital age.”

Tolman said due to the hyper speed of social media and the nonstop influx of information and commentary, Facebook posts and tweets are sometimes lost in the mix.

“We realized there’s no one to collect what’s happening right now,” she said. “We’re all just so in the weeds right now going through it, but no one is slowing down to write it down.”

Collecting in Quarantine is comprised of two sections, “Letters From the Homefront” and “Business Unusual” to assure future generations can comprehend the experiences of average Marylanders navigating through the pandemic response in 2020.

To this point, the “letter” submissions have largely consisted of journal entries capturing everyday existence during a time of widespread health fears.

“We’ve gotten some creative writing where people are pretending it’s a different time,” she said. “Basically, documenting what their daily life is and what anxieties they have on a personal level.”

Input from Marylanders presently living abroad and also the experiences of frontline healthcare workers are also welcomed.

Written content can be emailed to lettersfromthehomefront@mdhs.org.

The initiative is also seeking images that show how the present experience has altered life across the world.

The “Business Unusual” collection will feature snapshots that illustrate the spirit of survival at play across the state.

“We’re trying to collect both visual and written documentation of what’s going on right now,” she said.

While ample time exists to collect narratives, capturing visual evidence is more difficult.

“It’s been harder getting images because there’s so many less people out,” she said. “We’ve definitely gotten a lot more written content than we have images.”

With numerous industries facing economic pressures, and essential businesses adopting safety guidelines, images of communitywide efforts to surmount life-threatening challenges are being solicited to help future generations understand the moment.

“Everyone is sitting in their homes right now but for the businesses … or the healthcare workers who are out there in the world, how different our landscape looks right now,” she said.

Cameras nationwide are capturing an array of empty streets, solitary walkers, and the sudden explosion of curbside restaurant carryout service.

“There’s some very real things happening that should be documented,” she said.

To submit photos visit online at mdhs.org/webform/business-unusual.

Despite early responses favoring the written word over images, those figures are likely to even out eventually, Tolman said.

“We think that at the end of this, when we all come out the other side, that will be a time for us to get a resurgence of photos because everyone will be able to breathe, relax and then send us what they documented,” she said.

Some submissions to the Collecting in Quarantine initiative could be used in future collections.

“When someone sends us a letter, we let them know this won’t go out to the public,” she said. “If we want to put it out, we’re going to contact you.”

Tolman said if an entry is shared with the larger public, the writer or photographer could decide if they wish to be identified.

“Some people will write in a very authentic panic,” she said. “Sometimes, we probably don’t want to put the name.”

Stories from the Collecting in Quarantine initiative will be shared on the Maryland Historical Society’s “underbelly” blog and social media pages using hashtags #LettersFromtheHomeFrontMD and #CollectingInQuarantineMD.

For additional information visit online at mdhs.org.