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To educate future generations about the global coronavirus pandemic, museums are gathering “artifacts” to showcase the worldwide lockdown.
I know you would submit your mask and hand sanitizer to the collection. But what else could you share with the people of tomorrow? What things in your life show the impact of the coronavirus that you could share with future visitors to a museum?
The curators at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., are collecting items to capture this moment in time forever. The museums are closed for now but they seek objects, photographs, and documents that will live permanently in the institution’s collection.
Although it is also temporarily closed, the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah has done the same by creating two projects to document Utah’s response to COVID-19. You can check it out here.
How do you tell the story of neighbors helping neighbors during the pandemic by displaying your future memories in a museum? What would you add so that someone in the future will be able to say, “That was from the global pandemic of 2020.”?
What about your “silver lining” item, photo, or video from the pandemic? Some of it was bad, but not all of it. What is that object you could share that says “Well, at least I got this out of it.”?
When the Smithsonian collection is ready for the general public, I’ll bet you there is a giant wall of nothing but video conferences. That wing of the museum will be sponsored, of course, by Zoom.
I don’t know how the museums around the world will document this period of our lives, what I will see and listen to, but I’ll tell you this: I look forward to the day of me walking through the halls and remembering what we all experienced separately but together.
Live Mic with Lee Lonsberry can be heard weekdays from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app.
COVID-19 coronavirus is transmitted from person to person. It is a virus that is similar to the common cold and the flu. So, to prevent it from spreading:
Utah’s Coronavirus Information
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Utah Coronavirus Information Line – 1-800-456-7707
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention