New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Living history
New Haven Museum curates accounts of life during pandemic
When the New Haven Museum put out a call for stories about the COVID-19 pandemic last April, curators weren’t sure what to expect. Then, the questionnaires began to trickle in. They came from across Connecticut: New Haven, Milford, Simsbury, Newtown, Southington, Plantsville and beyond.
⏩ “I know something is wrong. I hope it doesn’t take surgery to help. The doc says I might feel like this moving forward. No one knows what this virus can really do.”
⏩ “My wife told me on the phone that her roommate was sick with a bad cold. I asked the nurse at the home if my wife should be moved. She told me that they were 10 feet apart with two curtains between them, not to worry.”
⏩ “I remember being not too concerned about being exposed, because the thinking then was that it was more of a risk to the elderly... we know differently now of course.”
⏩ “My routine is bordering on aimless. Having lost the love of my life, there is little meaning going forward.”
Their stories are heartbreaking, filled with emotion but also with accounts of everyday life. The responses from 11 questions came to reveal a greater picture of Connecticut’s collective experience over the past year living under the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s exactly what curators were hoping to collect in pursuing the museum’s goal of documenting the community’s shared local history.
One year later, museum officials want to hear more.
“What we’re learning through COVID is that we’re all interconnected. At this point, we’re just interested in what everyone has to say,” collections manager Mary Christ said. “Everybody’s stories matter, the extraordinary and the mundane.”
In her role, Christ spends her time cataloging and getting to know items from the museum’s extensive collection, which include artifacts from the Amistad, papers from Benedict Arnold, and items signed by Native American sachems in 1642, as well as personal accounts, objects and photos from everyday New Haveners.
Think of her as sorting through your grandparents’ attic, but with greater
purpose: To Christ, today’s everyday accounts and items are the future’s historical artifacts. The museum engages in “contemporary collecting,” meaning collecting and documenting things as they’re happening, as well as digitizing and archiving much older objects. These personal accounts go beyond the facts, Christ says. They can help future generations understand and put into context similar problems, like another pandemic, for instance. It’s a way to humanize history.
This became apparent recently when she was transcribing letters from a nurse in the 1920s. The woman, who spent time in France and New Haven caring for influenza patients, was writing home to her parents.
“She’s writing home to her parents that somebody came in, and they were fine, and then they had horrible (problems). They were suffering and had such hard struggles to breathe, and she was the one who was giving him oxygen 20 minutes for every hour and he didn’t make it,” Christ said. “It was heartbreakingly relevant to today. But she’s also kind of funny.” The nurse tells stories people today can relate to, Christ said.
In the letters, the nurse mentioned seeing a horror film with a friend and being freaked out when they were walking home. The curator said she thought it was relatable.
“So when you get these firstperson accounts in the moment, it will make people a year from now — 10 years from now, a hundred years from now — read these stories and hopefully see these pictures and handle these artifacts, and they can say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s me, that’s my sister, that’s my boyfriend, that’s my best friend, that’s my mom.’ And then, when you start to read the difficulties that they go through, or see exhibits about what they’ve overcome, it’s not, you know, George Washington, 1776, it’s a woman or a young kid or an older man, but they seem like real people, and then you develop that real empathy and that understanding of a different time.”
For the “Documenting the COVID-19 Crisis” project, the New Haven Museum has so far collected the obvious — stories and photos related to the pandemic — but also the less obvious, objects like take-out menus, handmade masks, works of art and even music.
Susan Yolen, from the Westville neighborhood of New Haven submitted 70 newsletters written from March 20 to June 2, filled with photos and everyday worries and activities as the writer navigated the new reality
of Covid’s risk. Keeping and sharing an account of her day-today life during the pandemic was a way to process what was going on, preserve a personal history for grandchildren, and lift the spirits of the 60 or so friends with whom she shared the newsletters, Yolen said. She heard about the New Haven Museum’s project through a newspaper article, and decided to share her experience for future generations.
“Writing the Coronavirus Daily became a wonderful way to spend a few hours every afternoon. I never knew what I was going to write until I sat down at the computer. But observing and writing, then sharing the newsletter with about 60 friends and family — that’s all — was a kick. I have to say, people loved it and told me often that reading it was the happiest part of their day,” she said.
Marlene Madera, from Wolcott, told of her experience as a teacher during the pandemic: “I was not given any warning. One day, we were all in school, the next morning school was canceled indefinitely. I figured it would just be temporary, but then my gym closed down a few days later. I still believed that it would be a couple of weeks. I was in denial, I guess.”
Madera said she shared her experiences with the museum because “I was aware that we were making history and was interested in sharing my thoughts and perspectives. I want to share this scary and unimaginable pandemic with future generations. Never in my wildest dreams nor nightmares have I imagined this horrid pandemic. Our busy, usual lives were halted without warning and in the blink of an eye. Our world will never be what it once was. I am grateful to have survived this experience but also nostalgic of how life once was.”
Another account, from the Annex neighborhood of New Haven, describes a senior’s time spent in isolation crocheting baby blankets and matching sweaters to benefit the Special Olympics. In yet another donation, Music Haven students perform “Stand by Me” and dedicate the virtual performance video to first responders. But there’s still room for more stories, museum officials said.
“If people want to contribute items years from now we would accept them. People don’t want to share in the moment necessarily, and so I think when people are ready to share, they will, as long as they know that they can,” New Haven Museum executive director Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky said.
Looking forward, museum officials are particularly interested in accounts from and objects related to the vaccination experience and stories from young people, especially the Class of 2020, Tockarshewsky said.
“Being seniors and then going into freshman year, two critical years, how they’ve come through that and their experiences” would be valuable additions to the collection, she said.
“I think, too, now that there is some light at the end of the tunnel, it would be interesting to hear people’s experiences about getting the vaccine and what that entails, and the people who are distributing the vaccine,” she said. “It’s got to be a completely different experience from being tested.”
Although there are no current plans for a COVID-related inperson exhibit, visitors can browse contributions to the project online at collections.newhavenmuseum.org and donate stories or arrange to donate objects through this form: newhavenmuseum.org/covid19/
“At this point, if we wound up with too many responses and too much information that we don’t know what to do with it, I would consider that a win,” Christ said.