Wellington Museum Asks For Your Help To Document Pandemic Experiences
The Wellington County Museum and Archives (WCMA) is closed to the public, but we’re still
collecting! The WCMA is collecting records that document personal experiences during the COVID-19
pandemic. We encourage you to share your story with us during this unprecedented moment in history.
Keep a diary, like Nellie Short of West Garafraxa Township, who commented on daily life on a farm in
Wellington County during the World War II. Take a video, like Leroy Massecar, who filmed everyday life in towns throughout Wellington County in the late 1940s.
Personal accounts provide depth and context for what an event or era was like for the everyday people
experiencing it. Gathering this type of information about the COVID-19 pandemic in Wellington County
will be important for people to understand this period of our history.
Use whatever medium is available to you to record your personal story: write a diary, take photographs,
create drawings, record a video, or create a scrapbook.
Possible questions to consider:
- How has this pandemic changed your daily routine? (e.g. going to school, working from
home, etc.) - If you are a frontline worker, what have you experienced? Challenges?
- If you have children, what they doing to pass the time in isolation?
- What are you feeling?
- If you are a business owner, how has your business been affected by or adapted to the
current circumstances? - What are you doing to help your community? (e.g. sewing masks, making “porch
deliveries” of groceries to neighbours, etc.) - How are you staying connected by social distancing? (e.g. video chats with family and
friends, texting, emailing, calls, social media, etc.)
“Everyone has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in varying degrees,” said Janice Hindley,
Wellington Place Administrator. “Diaries, journals, oral histories, images, recordings, and similar
materials will help us tell stories of this unprecedented time in history.”
Please consider sharing your story and submitting your records to the WCMA for preservation and
future use. For more information, or to donate, contact: Karen Wagner, Archivist, at
[email protected]
