CT museum wraps up COVID history project: ‘This will outlast my lifetime’
Excerpt:
‘Everyone in Connecticut has a story (or a dozen) of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected them. A select few will now have those memories recorded as part of a newly completed archive of the period.
The Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, formerly known as the Connecticut Historical Society, has finished a two-year project of collecting pandemic-related oral histories and artifacts, some of which will be digitized and all of which will be preserved as a lasting record of “We have everything from elected officials to people experiencing homelessness,” said Ilene Frank, the museum’s deputy executive director. “It’s a range of viewpoints, and I’m really happy about that.”
In total, the museum collected 73 interviews spanning more than 64 hours of audio, as well as hundreds of artifacts, including empty vaccine vials, signs warning of social distancing restrictions and a plush Dr. Anthony Fauci doll that was made in Connecticut.
The project, launched with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, focused particularly on vulnerable communities whose experiences are sometimes lost or overshadowed in the historical record. After initially targeting Hartford, Norwich and New Haven, it soon expanded to include interviews with people in 22 towns across the state.’