Share your pandemic experience with local historical societies
Preserving our memories for the future
The Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke (MHIST) is encouraging Sherbrooke residents to record and share their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic for future generations.
“Our mandate is to preserve the local memory and right now we are writing a moment in history,” explained David Lacoste, Director of MHIST. “It’s part of our mission.”
The idea behind the initiative is to collect testimonials for research expected to be carried out on the pandemic in the future. “We hope that in 20, 30, 40, 100 years that a trace is left behind. We are preserving the current memory but for the future.”
Lacoste explained that while the media will have recorded the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic happened, it’s the human stories that are important and provide deep insights into the different realities at the time. “We hope that people participate and that we can have complete and diversified information.”
As curator Karine Savary stated in a recent press release; “Official speeches and outlines will be preserved via media and official sources. But what about human beings? We want to know your realities; how do you live with confinement? Do you work from home? In the health sector or with the public? What are your fears? Your hopes? How do you spend your time?”
MHIST is inviting Sherbrooke residents from all walks of life to participate in the initiative.
Testimonials can be presented in the form of a letter, a poem, a diary, a photograph, or a drawing and sent to karine.savary@mhist.org. or they can be given to the museum in paper form when the social confinement period is over.
Testimonials should include your name, age, e-mail, and address. This information will remain confidential and is only being used to make the donation to MHIST official.
Our lives have been changed. Even if we have not become sick ourselves, or know someone who has, we have all been affected in numerous ways. Some major, some relatively minor.
The Bury Historical and Heritage Society has begun an initiative to encourage all citizens of our region to make a record of how they are being affected by the global Coronavirus pandemic.
What is your daily life like? How are you coping with not going to work or school? How are you safely keeping in touch with family and friends?
We would like to invite you to share with us how the pandemic is affecting your life. Contributions from people of all ages are most welcome.
Send us your stories, photographs, videos, audio recording, or anything that comes to mind to contribute to creating a realistic record of the momentous period of history that we are all currently living through.
For each person who has something they are willing to share for this project, a dedicated web-page will be created for your contribution that will remain on the Bury Historical and Heritage Website as a historical record for future generations.
Certain entries will be featured on the “Living History - COVID-19 Pandemic” project page.
Send your stories, photos, videos or audio recordings to:
John Mackley, Archivist SHPB-BHHS Bury1803@gmail.com https://buryhistoricalandheritagesociety.ca/