For Individual Users
The Rhode Island COVID-19 Archive was launched in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and was closed to submissions on June 30, 2023. The site and all contributions will be preserved by Providence Public Library and Rhode Island Historical Society.
We know that we’re neither the first nor the 1,000,000th to say this, but: we’re in the midst of an unprecedented time. Because the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything most of us have ever experienced, it feels historic, and a lot of people have been thinking about how to record and save their experiences.
You might want to document what your life is like right now for your own reference, as part of a daily practice to keep yourself grounded, or as part of your legacy to pass on to family or close friends. You also might be thinking about the broader arc of “history”, which tells the story of a time through a combination of both large-scale events (like news stories, government actions, nationwide trends) and smaller-scale experiences (like a journal entry, a photo of a family, or a recipe passed between friends).
We’re providing a loose guide, with prompts to help you create your own physical and/or digital records of your experience. It also offers some advice about ways to protect your privacy and that of people around you if you decide to share your records publicly.
Ideas for Documentation
If you need some ideas to get you started, here are a few suggestions:
- take photos of the exteriors (or the "closed" signs) of shuttered businesses in your neighborhood, or “for lease” signs on businesses that have permanently closed
- if you’re going to work or to school, show the process of getting ready, or document what it’s like inside your classroom or workplace
- as the state reopens, take a video of yourself doing something that you haven’t been able to do (or haven’t felt safe doing) for a long time, like taking your first trip back to a favorite restaurant or getting your first haircut in months
- create portraits of the people around you wearing masks
- draw a picture of the foods you eat over the course of a day and describe how you get your food right now: are you buying it inside a grocery store, growing it in a garden, picking it up from a food bank, or getting it some other way?
- write a list of 5 things you are worried about and 5 things you are grateful for
- create a “nature log” of plants or animals that you observe near your home/ in your yard/ on walks
- have your children draw pictures of the future
- take screenshots of online socializing: facetime calls with family or friends, zoom meetings, an online cocktail hour, social gaming, a socially distant holiday celebration--what does staying connected look like right now?
- take photographs of in-person socializing: masked time on a playground, a socially-distant barbecue, or a scene in a park or on a beach. How is socializing different now than it was before COVID-19?
Prompts for Conversations
While the above suggestions are mostly about recording your individual experiences, this is also a great time to hold and/or record conversation with your loved ones. This can be as formal as an oral history interview, or as casual as a recorded conversation between you and a child or partner. You can hold a conversation with someone whom you see every day, or you can record a conversation held over Zoom, Skype, or Facetime. (Follow these links for how to record Skype calls, how to record a Zoom meeting, and how to record a Facetime call, and remember to get your conversation partner’s permission before you record.) You could even use the questions below as writing prompts and then exchange emails or letters through the mail with someone for a slow-paced “conversation”.
Here are a few prompts to help you get started, or to keep a good conversation rolling:
- Can you tell me about another time when you were separated from/ unable to see family members or friends?
- What do you think the future of our country/ the planet holds?
- What are your dreams for your children?
- For future generations listening to this: what would you like them to know about this moment?
- What’s your relationship to uncertainty? How does it make you feel?
- What does distance feel like right now?
- Does time seem to be moving more quickly or more slowly right now?
- Is there a song, poem, or story that calms you down when you feel stressed? Would you be willing to share it?
- Who do you love who is far away? Who do you love who is in your home or nearby?
- If your home is feeling crowded, how do you seek out alone time?
- What’s a kind or generous thing that you’ve done for another person recently, or witnessed someone doing for another person recently?
- What is a message that you’d like to share with yourself a year ago? What about yourself a year from now?
Privacy and Permissions
Consider the privacy of any people in your photos or videos, and get their consent to take an image of them if at all possible. For instance, you could ask a coworker before taking a portrait of them working in a mask and gloves. Privacy is especially a consideration in situations where you could be revealing something personal about someone’s health, financial situation, or private life (for example, by taking a picture of a line at the food pantry, or in a medical setting) or where the person could face potential legal repercussions for whatever you’re documenting (for example, at a political protest or at a social gathering larger than allowed by state restrictions).
If you can’t get permission from the people in your photos or videos, try creating images where their faces or other identifying characteristics aren’t immediately visible. For instance, you could take a photo at a political march where you can only see people’s backs instead of their faces, or you could take a video of just the hands of someone working at an essential job, or the feet of people waiting in line at the food pantry. Get creative!
If you’re submitting something with content that isn’t yours (for instance, a photo that someone else took, or a recording of a performance), you need to get permission from the content creator first. This could be written permission or informal, verbal permission; if you can’t get permission, you should avoid sharing things that aren’t yours. This Copyright Basics circular from the U.S. Copyright Office provides some further information about ownership and permissions, and this Can I Use that Picture? infographic can help you decide exactly that.