In an effort to capture and preserve the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our community, the West Virginia and Regional History Center is asking for volunteers to document their experiences of this extraordinary time. The WVRHC is inviting WVU students, faculty, and staff of all campuses and WVU Medicine to submit open and honest personal accounts of their lives during the coronavirus outbreak. These accounts, be they diaries, audio recordings, photographs, or scrapbooks, will help future generations understand the effect the pandemic had on our community. We will accept physical materials, so don’t let format constrain your creativity!
We're grateful for those willing to share their stories.
To register your interest, please fill out this form.
Please start recording your experiences now! When you're ready to submit your material, please use the link to the right →
In need of some inspiration? Check out the following projects:
Why You Should Start a Coronavirus Diary
Your Maps of Life Under Lockdown
The art, and therapy, of the diary in a time of COVID-19
Grand Valley State University COVID-19 Journaling Project
Photo Series 'Queerantine' Offers A Front-Porch View Of Life During A Pandemic
Art in a Time of Pandemic
“A keen vision and feeling of all ordinary life”: Pandemic Journaling in the History Classroom
Creating a collage -- and the related New York Times article
While we want you to share your experiences, personal health information covered under HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), should only be included if it is your own personal information. Please do not include the personal health information of any other person.
Remember, you can reach a trained counselor through the Crisis Text Line by texting WVU to 74174. It is free, confidential, and available 24/7. You can find out more about the Carruth Center here.
We're happy to answer any additional questions you may have. You can reach us at: wvrhcref@mail.wvu.edu
We will be accepting materials for the foreseeable future, so please continue documenting your experiences, thoughts, and feelings. If you're ready to submit or if you'd like to submit a first round, please fill out the
Please fill out the online submission form even if you're sending physical materials.
Send physical materials to:
COVID-19 Stories project
c/o West Virginia and Regional History Center
P.O. Box 6069
1549 University Ave.
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV 26506-6069
In the electronic submission form, you will be asked to sign a Deed of Gift. For your convenience, we've included a copy below.
Want to learn about how folks lived during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and the materials the WVRHC holds documenting this era in West Virginia and here at WVU? Curious how your materials could be used by historians in the future?
1918: Looking Back at World War I and the Spanish Flu
A century apart, pandemics have parallels in WVU's response
