Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And back
Speaker 1: in May, when COVID nineteen was still the dominant force
Speaker 1: in the news cycle, I had the chance to talk
Speaker 1: to two people from the Atlanta History Center, where their
Speaker 1: entire team has been finding ways to capture information and
Speaker 1: artifacts related to the pandemic to ensure that future generations
Speaker 1: have access to a really robust record of this unique time.
Speaker 1: We mentioned this collection project pretty briefly in one of
Speaker 1: our previous episodes, but Holly got in touch and asked
Speaker 1: if they would like to talk at more length about
Speaker 1: this effort, as well as what it's like to figure
Speaker 1: out how to keep a living history museum going and
Speaker 1: fulfilling its whole mission when you have to be closed
Speaker 1: to the public. And so this first interview is with
Speaker 1: Sheffield Hale, the President and chief executive officer of the
Speaker 1: Atlanta History Center, and Sheffield and I talked about everything
Speaker 1: from the History Center's living collection to how the pandemic
Speaker 1: is going to impact the way workforces function in the future.
Speaker 1: So here is Sheffield so Sheffield, My co host and
Speaker 1: I have spoken on the show about the points where
Speaker 1: each of us realized that this pandemic was happening at
Speaker 1: a level that was going to directly impact our daily lives.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious what that moment is like from an
Speaker 1: institutional perspective, where staff and community are significant factors to
Speaker 1: think about, Like, when did you realize that this was
Speaker 1: going to fundamentally change business operations for the History Center?
Speaker 1: I guess it's probably the friday that we closed. I
Speaker 1: finally realized it. It was sort of like a slow
Speaker 1: motion role of watching this happen across the country, watching
Speaker 1: other museums, not wanting to be the first, not wanting
Speaker 1: to be the last, trying to gauge public opinion of
Speaker 1: the safety of your staff first, and uh, it's it
Speaker 1: reminds you a little bit of a when we see
Speaker 1: its snow coming right for a snow day. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure it out, and you're watching what
Speaker 1: everybody else is doing, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: there's a big rush and everybody gets in their car
Speaker 1: and they leave and there's a traffic Well that's what
Speaker 1: happened um with in terms of people closing. Uh. Did
Speaker 1: the History Center already have a disaster plan in place?
Speaker 1: I know they have them in place, but one that
Speaker 1: would cover a situation like a pandemic or did you
Speaker 1: guys have to put a plan together to deal with
Speaker 1: this kind of as it was happening. Well, we did
Speaker 1: it on on the fly in some respects. We had
Speaker 1: a plan for remote working because we had a plan
Speaker 1: that the campus was closed. Um, it wasn't because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, but it or it could have been because
Speaker 1: of the power outages which we have a lot of
Speaker 1: in Atlanta because in a lot of trees around there,
Speaker 1: or tornado or hurricane some extended period of time, or
Speaker 1: there had been a you know, a loss of a building.
Speaker 1: So we had you know, redundant systems for all the technology,
Speaker 1: for all everything that we store, all of the data
Speaker 1: and the information um that we have. We had all that.
Speaker 1: So it really worked well for a pandemic because but
Speaker 1: all that is is working remotely. Um. And so we
Speaker 1: but we operated on the flights. You know, we went
Speaker 1: to you're going from seventy to zero and and then
Speaker 1: it's like, well we can all work from home. Now
Speaker 1: what do we do? Right? Um, and how can we
Speaker 1: be productive? And that was what we had to really
Speaker 1: improvise at the time. And uh, and I'm really pleased
Speaker 1: and proud of what came out of it. Um. What
Speaker 1: are the steps involved for closing a place like the
Speaker 1: History Center for an unknown period of time because there
Speaker 1: are a lot of different types of collections there, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of events that happened there, etcetera. What
Speaker 1: preparations have to be made so that everything can be
Speaker 1: taken care of when most of the staff is not
Speaker 1: on site. So he had the events started, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, canceling one after another. There are a few
Speaker 1: you know, weddings that were in May that it took
Speaker 1: a while for people to reach reality in terms of
Speaker 1: you know, acceptance, you have to go through the stags
Speaker 1: of grief there, um in June, but we were able
Speaker 1: to work through all those and rebook most of those
Speaker 1: and UM and most of everybody was understanding about that.
Speaker 1: In terms of the museum itself, We've got to keep it,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, we've got to keep the security,
Speaker 1: we've got to keep the humidity, air conditioning and all
Speaker 1: that going on for the artifacts both in our archives
Speaker 1: but also in the museum itself are historic houses that
Speaker 1: we have living collections. We have goats and sheep and
Speaker 1: perkeys and and rhodein and red chickens that all have
Speaker 1: to be fed and um, and they have two stalls
Speaker 1: have to be cleaned. Um. All that has to happen
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. And then we have the other living collections,
Speaker 1: all of the flowers and uh plants that have to
Speaker 1: be tend it too. UM. So we had to work
Speaker 1: out away for our gardeners to be socially distant when
Speaker 1: they were you know, coming back and use their own tools.
Speaker 1: And we went through this whole elaborate criteria of you know,
Speaker 1: looking around the country and other botanical gardens figure out
Speaker 1: what they were doing. Were there any special things that
Speaker 1: you had to do for the living collections. I'm very
Speaker 1: worried about the animals. I want to make sure they're
Speaker 1: all good. Well, we made sure we had redundancy in
Speaker 1: terms of who knew how to feed them and how
Speaker 1: much and when, um, and that they didn't need each
Speaker 1: other and that you know, we went through all of
Speaker 1: this elaborate you know, you bring your own lunch, you know,
Speaker 1: bring your own tools, don't use anybody else to a
Speaker 1: person can use this card or that card. These bathrooms
Speaker 1: are designated for each of you. Uh, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know it's we went, you know, it's because it's a
Speaker 1: certain group here, certain group there. So one group got
Speaker 1: infected that wouldn't impact the other group. And so we
Speaker 1: you know, we said, you know, a lot of time
Speaker 1: figuring that out, and a lot of it's on the fly,
Speaker 1: and we hadn't been through this. But you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's the great thing about having friends all over the
Speaker 1: country and learning from them and friends across the street,
Speaker 1: you know, the Lanta Botanical Garden down the road. So
Speaker 1: in my head, I'm picturing this wild spreadsheet of who
Speaker 1: can be where women use what that I'm I may
Speaker 1: be um overthinking that way. No you're not, unfortunately, UM.
Speaker 1: I hope you're preserving that wild spreadsheet as part of
Speaker 1: the the historical record, actually, like I legitimately do, because
Speaker 1: that's one of those things people don't think about that
Speaker 1: seem maybe mundane and not really part of a pandemic prep.
Speaker 1: But that's part of how we all get through. Right.
Speaker 1: This is the Green Party and this's the Red Party
Speaker 1: right right. What has been the hardest part of all
Speaker 1: of this. You said you had planned for work from
Speaker 1: home for very temporary closures like a power outage, but
Speaker 1: this is a temporary closure that is longer in length
Speaker 1: and probably larger in scope than you guys normally have.
Speaker 1: What's been the biggest challenge, Well, the biggest challenge and
Speaker 1: the biggest hit long term is going to be financially,
Speaker 1: you know, because if you know, we had all of
Speaker 1: these events planned that UM as part of our revenue.
Speaker 1: UM in the spring and the early summer is a
Speaker 1: is a peak time you know for both weddings and
Speaker 1: other other events, and that went away. Now they've been rescheduled,
Speaker 1: but they're in another fiscal year and they may or
Speaker 1: may not happen, and if they do happen, they probably
Speaker 1: happen in smaller groups. UM. So we're having to budget
Speaker 1: next year based on that. The Swan House Ball has
Speaker 1: now been postponed to September. We hope we'll be able
Speaker 1: to have it, then we may not, we don't know.
Speaker 1: UM Our biggest event honoring you know, Lovett Russell, who's
Speaker 1: just one of them great humans in Atlanta, so that
Speaker 1: you know, through webs out and you know, but all
Speaker 1: those things and then admissions and the school tours and
Speaker 1: all those things interrupted just zero. So on the revenue side,
Speaker 1: you had that. Now what we did realize is that
Speaker 1: we can continue to do our mission in the interim remotely.
Speaker 1: And you know, the whole mantra about do not waste
Speaker 1: a crisis, um, I bought into that. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: completely say Okay, if we're gonna be closed, we're gonna
Speaker 1: accomplish a lot. Let's get everything that's done that's on
Speaker 1: my list. Now we have no excuses. You know, we're
Speaker 1: working on a new strategic plan. We've got an interpretive plan,
Speaker 1: collections plan, collecting plan, finish them. Now is the time,
Speaker 1: no more excuses. What can we do in terms of
Speaker 1: our backlog of veterans oral histories, Let's put the as
Speaker 1: many people as we can on transcribing those. And so
Speaker 1: people from the front desk, people you know who are
Speaker 1: helping in that area. We're now transcribing oral histories and
Speaker 1: another group is proofing them the transcriptions. So we're doing
Speaker 1: those kinds of things. And the educators who are supposed
Speaker 1: to be dealing with school kids are now producing videos
Speaker 1: that we put up online for kids to be able
Speaker 1: to do activities at home and we'll have those forever.
Speaker 1: So a lot of that we are able to capture
Speaker 1: and in the last two months of the year. And
Speaker 1: and but to make sure that we we used the
Speaker 1: time as effectively as possible. And I've made sure that.
Speaker 1: When I first got here, one of the senior people said,
Speaker 1: of Cheffield, why are you always in a hurry? And
Speaker 1: I've learned that folks in the in the history world
Speaker 1: a lot of times historically have worked on Jurassic Time.
Speaker 1: I came out of you I'm a lawyer, right, so
Speaker 1: I came out of you know, six minute inferments on
Speaker 1: time sheets and dealing with that in every minute counted, um.
Speaker 1: And then I was at the American Cancer Society and
Speaker 1: we were in a hurry to try to cure cancer.
Speaker 1: And I'm mission driven, and so you know, we're in
Speaker 1: a hurry. Um. You know in in so we're in
Speaker 1: a pandemic. Great, now we have time to clear out
Speaker 1: all that crap that you say you don't have time for.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get it done and we're gonna have time
Speaker 1: to think and it's gonna be great. And guess what
Speaker 1: it's It has been very productive and the big surprising
Speaker 1: thing is how busy we've all been. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't. I try to cancel some meetings and just said, well,
Speaker 1: what will your reschedule it for an hour? I mean
Speaker 1: they're booked all day, you know, And I understand it's
Speaker 1: like damn you know, and you get off of you'll
Speaker 1: get off these damn zoom meetings that you know the
Speaker 1: end of the day. So where did it go? So
Speaker 1: it's been it's been really in fascinating that way. That
Speaker 1: is really interesting. I mean, I I feel like we
Speaker 1: have had kind of the same experience in our podcasting,
Speaker 1: but a lot of that has been because we all
Speaker 1: started working from home, setting up our own little mini
Speaker 1: studios and stuff. So we're one of the few kind
Speaker 1: of media outlets that didn't have to really miss a
Speaker 1: beat in terms of transition. But it's interesting to hear
Speaker 1: how quickly your team made that shift and found themselves
Speaker 1: perhaps busier than ever getting through all of these projects.
Speaker 1: That's probably got to feel great to get that to
Speaker 1: do list checked off. Yeah, I have another list. Oh,
Speaker 1: Sheffield is a whip cracker. No, it's gonna feel it's
Speaker 1: gonna feel great, and we are making real progress and
Speaker 1: we have made some you know, we've had a few
Speaker 1: minor epiphanies along the way, and it's been great. Now
Speaker 1: you are, of course in charge of this large facility
Speaker 1: and all of its people and its living collections, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And how do you balance out managing all of the
Speaker 1: needs and logistics of the history center with the needs
Speaker 1: of yourself and your family at a time that is
Speaker 1: weird and unprecedented and stressful in ways I think none
Speaker 1: of us can really prepare for. You know, it has
Speaker 1: been a lot more stressful, and it manifests us off
Speaker 1: in different ways. And I've anticipated and in part because
Speaker 1: the weather has been so good and everything has been
Speaker 1: so beautiful. It's been so surreal. You step outside and
Speaker 1: you say, this can't be. We can't be in a pandemic.
Speaker 1: It's just too nice. So the whole groundhog day effect
Speaker 1: um can wear on you. You know. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, I used to ask practicing law, you know,
Speaker 1: for a long time, and I'm used to highly stressful situations.
Speaker 1: I'm used to, you know, ignoring my family and and
Speaker 1: being a bad father. Um. But the good news is
Speaker 1: is that you know, nobody's home anymore. They're all, you know,
Speaker 1: in their late twenties and early thirties, and it's just myself,
Speaker 1: my wife, and my dog Baxter, who's very thrilled to
Speaker 1: have me at home all day long. So it's been interesting.
Speaker 1: I've actually been able to see more of my children
Speaker 1: because we you know, we feel comfortable, you know, having
Speaker 1: a mini quarantine pod, but they're not living under my roof.
Speaker 1: Is the History Center looking back at like their historical
Speaker 1: knowledge and research about pandemics, this is not the first
Speaker 1: pandemic to happen to kind of help both the Center
Speaker 1: and the community understand the trajectory of this one and
Speaker 1: like contextualize what we're living through right now. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: the first thing that we're doing is was beginning to
Speaker 1: collect in real time, you know, with our Corona collective.
Speaker 1: And part of that's reflective of the fact that you
Speaker 1: look at our collections, there's not much from pandemic and
Speaker 1: flu pandemic um and the couple of reasons to that
Speaker 1: one we were found in n But the main reason
Speaker 1: is that people didn't keep um ordinary items from that
Speaker 1: time because it's something they got through and they wanted
Speaker 1: to move on. And also it was into the First
Speaker 1: World war, and you know, there were other things going
Speaker 1: on at the same time, and people just wanted to
Speaker 1: push through it. So I think there were a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, learnings, there's you know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: there's a lot of history that's in the newspapers and
Speaker 1: other places that you can go back and read about. Um,
Speaker 1: but you're not hearing as much about what happened to
Speaker 1: ordinary people. That might be more instructive is to how,
Speaker 1: for example, practices may change in the future as a
Speaker 1: result of this. We all assume that, you know, our
Speaker 1: world has changed forever and we're not going to go
Speaker 1: back to certain practices. Well we don't necessarily know that,
Speaker 1: but probably true in many areas. But we can't predict
Speaker 1: the future. Um. All we can do is collect the
Speaker 1: present and then let other people gather in twenty year,
Speaker 1: thirty years and say, oh, that's when that happened, that's
Speaker 1: when they finally got clean bathrooms. What has been the
Speaker 1: biggest surprise in all of this for you, because there
Speaker 1: have to have been things that just took you completely
Speaker 1: off guard. Well, first of all, the remote working worked
Speaker 1: as well as it has, or it seems to have.
Speaker 1: I've always been a skeptic about that unless somebody was
Speaker 1: a piece worker and or a lawyer, you could count
Speaker 1: their hours that they spent doing something or you know,
Speaker 1: task it was performed in an area where there's not
Speaker 1: anything necessarily tangible to be delivered. It's it's hard to
Speaker 1: manage remotely and feel like you're charged in a traditional way.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of those prejudices are breaking down
Speaker 1: and that you're seeing people are actually very effective working
Speaker 1: remotely and can get a lot done. And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's at the end of the office yet, because
Speaker 1: I do think that there's something about being able to
Speaker 1: have some camaraderie and be with other people, and you
Speaker 1: can't accomplish a lot that way, and then there's a
Speaker 1: lot of your identity that way. But it won't be
Speaker 1: it probably won't be the same. And if you could
Speaker 1: get a trigal diet like me to believe that remote
Speaker 1: working works, I mean it must be really taken off.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to think about how this moment will be
Speaker 1: perceived in terms of workforce by future generations. Lastly, because
Speaker 1: you are, you know, the head of an organization that
Speaker 1: takes care to manage, you know information about the past
Speaker 1: and use that, you know, as a form of education
Speaker 1: and as part of community building. I wonder what you're
Speaker 1: hoping we will all take away from this experience when
Speaker 1: it's part of our history. You know. What we try
Speaker 1: to do the Atlanta History Center is connect people history
Speaker 1: and culture. And what we're trying to do is to
Speaker 1: let people get some perspective connectivity their own community and
Speaker 1: somebody people's other ideas, and connect them to the city
Speaker 1: somehow through history. I think what this pandemic is shown
Speaker 1: is that we're really all connected together in so many ways,
Speaker 1: and and that we really need to understand that, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms, it's it's biological, it's spatial, you know what's
Speaker 1: with these you know, the virus shows how interconnected we
Speaker 1: are and how dependent we are on each other, and
Speaker 1: that we can't just you know, all drive into our
Speaker 1: little cult of sacs and sit in our great room
Speaker 1: and ignore each other. And we that we actually have
Speaker 1: to come out onto the street and be able to
Speaker 1: interact with each other positive way. That shows it we
Speaker 1: respect the fact that somebody else is entitled to be
Speaker 1: there as well. It's not just about us. And I
Speaker 1: think like a lot of people are going to learn
Speaker 1: that from this pandemics. But you know, people have a
Speaker 1: way of learning things that quickly forgetting them. This is true.
Speaker 1: Fingers crossed fingers. That will be a lesson that sticks. Sheffield,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for spending time with me today.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. It's been a great pleasure. Thank you, um,
Speaker 1: and thank you always to the History Center for all
Speaker 1: the amazing work you guys do. I love that place,
Speaker 1: so I'm always always happy and it's always a treat
Speaker 1: to talk to everybody from there. We'll be back soon. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The second interview is with Michael Rose, chief Mission Officer
Speaker 1: and Executive vice President for Collections and Exhibitions. So first off,
Speaker 1: will you tell us exactly what it is you do
Speaker 1: at the Atlanta History Center. I had the title of
Speaker 1: Chief Mission Officer and Executive vice President for Collections and Exhibitions,
Speaker 1: and what I like to tell people is I get
Speaker 1: to do the fund stuff. So as mission officer, I'm
Speaker 1: involved with the mission of the organization, which is everything
Speaker 1: from historic gardens to our research center. All of our
Speaker 1: collections be that photographs are documents, artifacts, three dimensional objects,
Speaker 1: living collections like the gardens and the animals at Smith
Speaker 1: Farm and we develop the product as it were, for
Speaker 1: the public, and that can be exhibitions and a wide
Speaker 1: variety of other visitor experiences. But that's why I say,
Speaker 1: I get to do the fun stuff. I work with
Speaker 1: very creative people, very dedicated in conducting research and developing
Speaker 1: what that experience is going to be. So right now
Speaker 1: you are heading up a really interesting project, which is
Speaker 1: why I wanted to talk to you today, called the
Speaker 1: Corona Collective. Will you tell us what that is? The
Speaker 1: mission of the institution is to collect, preserve, interpret, and
Speaker 1: provide access to the stuff of history, and so much
Speaker 1: of the focus of historical agencies like the Allen History
Speaker 1: Centers often seen as acquiring historical quote unquote artifacts that
Speaker 1: in one sense may already be understood as being old
Speaker 1: by people and family photographs, business records, and effects associated
Speaker 1: normally without a variety of people, places, and events, and
Speaker 1: many people see these in relationship to collecting in order
Speaker 1: to document large events such as the Vietnam War, the
Speaker 1: Olympic Games, or to document significant social change like the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement, the suffrage movement, or quote unquote gay rights,
Speaker 1: and in addition, institutions also collect the more mundane items
Speaker 1: documenting the sort of essence of the daily life. And
Speaker 1: these are artifacts that are the most ephemeral, and to
Speaker 1: one extent, one thinks about their importance and understanding what
Speaker 1: it means to really live in a moment in time.
Speaker 1: And these are the things that are normally disposed of
Speaker 1: because they're used up and and thrown away. And so
Speaker 1: looking at this particular point in time, we have a
Speaker 1: large event happened now that and I think everybody agrees,
Speaker 1: will signify a social change. We're living in a new world, right,
Speaker 1: So we look at this as an opportunity to conduct
Speaker 1: contemporary collecting, and that in a sense is predicting the
Speaker 1: future because instead of instead of collecting what's old, we're
Speaker 1: collecting what we think the future will think is old.
Speaker 1: And that can be difficult. So you you attempt to
Speaker 1: do it in a way that um, somebody in the
Speaker 1: future can make a decision. You tend to overcollect in
Speaker 1: order to ensure that you have the adequate material that
Speaker 1: somebody in the future in a number of years can
Speaker 1: determine whether or not something actually does have cultural significance
Speaker 1: in some way. At this moment in time, what we
Speaker 1: decided to do was, uh, this Corona Collective is crowd
Speaker 1: collecting and because in one aspect, we can't go out
Speaker 1: ourselves as staff of the Atlanta History Center to fulfill
Speaker 1: our mission to collect the cultural material of our community.
Speaker 1: So we're looking upon the community to help us do that.
Speaker 1: And so we established this online it's it's at Atlanta
Speaker 1: History Center dot com Corona Collective to allow the public
Speaker 1: too upload material in a variety of formats onto our
Speaker 1: website to help us collect the material in this moment
Speaker 1: in time. And I think that the one thing is
Speaker 1: that looking on this big because mobile devices are what
Speaker 1: we live with. And what I was telling one person
Speaker 1: was that isolated as we are at this moment in
Speaker 1: time with the pandemic, that those mobile devices are how
Speaker 1: we are communicating one to another through a variety of
Speaker 1: virtual platforms to have meetings and with our our phones
Speaker 1: to take photographs and to communicate with friends through a
Speaker 1: variety again online platforms like Facebook and Instagram and and others.
Speaker 1: And so, as I said to somebody, this is this
Speaker 1: is how I live, This is how I communicate, this
Speaker 1: is how I survive because at this moment in time,
Speaker 1: it's it's that social media. It's that that social mobile
Speaker 1: platform that allows us to reconnect to the world from
Speaker 1: this isolated pandemics space that we're all right, and we
Speaker 1: can use all of that material that everybody is living
Speaker 1: with to document what's happening. And so we're providing a
Speaker 1: platform on our website for people to upload this material
Speaker 1: to help us document, like I said, this moment in
Speaker 1: times pandemic. And so that's what the Corona Collective is.
Speaker 1: It's crowd collecting for contemporary collecting um in order to
Speaker 1: document life as it is right now. And that includes
Speaker 1: quote unquote major things low that you would think of,
Speaker 1: such as the restrictions by state and local governments and
Speaker 1: things like that. But it's also is that what I
Speaker 1: referred to is that mundane documentation of our daily lives.
Speaker 1: It's um. Well, let me just say that this is
Speaker 1: this is the online component. Is is only part of
Speaker 1: the initiative because in addition to that, the staff is
Speaker 1: still going out on their own social dis and sing
Speaker 1: and wearing masks to document this with their own level
Speaker 1: devices and in other ways and collecting artifacts that we
Speaker 1: know that we want to keep. So we're keeping a
Speaker 1: list of those artifacts that we can collect now that
Speaker 1: we can collect after the restrictions are lifted and we're
Speaker 1: able to get out again. And um, we're also asking
Speaker 1: certain individuals in different professions or fields to document there
Speaker 1: experiences as well. Um, my niece is a nurse in
Speaker 1: a hospital. I have a nephew who is a firefighter.
Speaker 1: So we're talking to first responders and asking them to
Speaker 1: specifically document their experiences. We have one young man who
Speaker 1: was an intern at the Atlanta History Center and he
Speaker 1: had been called up to the National Guard and assigned
Speaker 1: to Charlotte to help locate possible sites in Charlotte for
Speaker 1: temporary hospitals. So he is documenting his experience as well.
Speaker 1: But in this collecting getting getting back to the mount,
Speaker 1: the mundane part. I joke with someone about, you know,
Speaker 1: at some point there will be an exhibition about all
Speaker 1: of this, and I can, I can, I can envision
Speaker 1: in this this gallery space at the Atlanta History Center,
Speaker 1: the display case with the the bonnet, the glass bonnet
Speaker 1: on top of it, and inside with the light shining
Speaker 1: at from above is a roll of toilet paper because
Speaker 1: that is is one of that is one of the
Speaker 1: symbolic items of this A bottle of hand sanitizers, homemade masks. Uh,
Speaker 1: these are the sorts of things that we're thinking about
Speaker 1: collecting because they are so symbolic of what we're all
Speaker 1: living with right now. Oh, that sounds actually kind of amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm picturing someone from the future stumbling into that section
Speaker 1: of a display and just being like, toilet paper, what
Speaker 1: is this about? Um? But boy, hasn't been an important
Speaker 1: part of this experience for a lot of people. Um.
Speaker 1: And you're right, it is a symbol of all of
Speaker 1: this that we don't necessarily think of in that way.
Speaker 1: Everyone's concerned about having it, but we really don't think
Speaker 1: about how that is going to be a touchstone of
Speaker 1: the descriptors of this many many years from now. You
Speaker 1: mentioned that that your staff is going out and you know,
Speaker 1: practicing safe safe practices, but collecting artifacts. What kind of
Speaker 1: artifacts are they collecting? Well, they are they are actually
Speaker 1: collecting the toilet paper and the hand sanitizers. You know,
Speaker 1: we're lucky in Atlanta to have a series of distilleries,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know if you're aware of it,
Speaker 1: some of the distilleries in town have turned to making
Speaker 1: hand sanitizers from the alcohol that they have at their
Speaker 1: at their disposal and so they're they're putting the that
Speaker 1: hand sanitizing that they're creating intto hump bottles, and they're
Speaker 1: branding them with their distillery name. And so we're like,
Speaker 1: we're collecting that sort of that sort of artifact. And
Speaker 1: I had I do have one staff member. She didn't
Speaker 1: have to leave her house to collect this because she
Speaker 1: had in her house and she has promised to donate
Speaker 1: the teddy bears that she placed in her window. That
Speaker 1: are you aware of that? Yeah, that that placing teddy
Speaker 1: bears because that activity in neighborhoods is something that kids
Speaker 1: can get out of the house and go around and
Speaker 1: it becomes a hunt to find the teddy bears. Right,
Speaker 1: other people have been putting you know, homemade paper hearts
Speaker 1: in their windows and things like that. So that's that's
Speaker 1: the sort of thing that at this point in time
Speaker 1: we're looking to collect. In addition to creating a larger
Speaker 1: list of what we might be looking for, is as
Speaker 1: well then we can't access at this point in time. Now.
Speaker 1: You also mentioned um specifically like that you're documenting our
Speaker 1: our local and state uh you know, government advisories, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I know there are other institutions doing similar projects. Has
Speaker 1: there been any discussion with the Atlanta History Center with
Speaker 1: other institutions about sharing this kind of information or creating
Speaker 1: a more massive collective, or do you think there will
Speaker 1: be at some point, you know, some cooperative effort to
Speaker 1: combine these things to make a fuller picture of life
Speaker 1: in the US. We're certainly aware of the larger effort
Speaker 1: by other institutions to also document the coronavirus pandemic, and
Speaker 1: those are all being done in a variety of ways.
Speaker 1: I'm aware of The Historic New Orleans Collection is using
Speaker 1: an automated system to collect tweets, and so they have
Speaker 1: advised people to use a use a particular hashtag so
Speaker 1: that they it would be easier for their system to
Speaker 1: identify and collect those for their system. Other institutions are
Speaker 1: asking people to simply um, send them a an email
Speaker 1: and let them know what they have and and let
Speaker 1: the staff contact them again. UM. The Indiana Historical Society
Speaker 1: is doing something very similar to what we're doing and
Speaker 1: allowing the public to upload a variety of formats for
Speaker 1: digital content. UM. We've at this point in time, we've
Speaker 1: received about close to a hundred and fifty individual donations
Speaker 1: and over four hundred digital files, and that can be
Speaker 1: everything from UM, a written document that is uploaded, and
Speaker 1: that can be a description from somebody who has who
Speaker 1: has suffered from the virus or someone who has caring
Speaker 1: for somebody who is suffering from the virus. Two poetry
Speaker 1: and other formats and videos UM and photographs. So it's
Speaker 1: been a wide variety of content that that we have
Speaker 1: been receiving. There's not an essential coordinated effort between institutions.
Speaker 1: I don't think at this particular point in time that
Speaker 1: any of us are competing one against another. We we
Speaker 1: do try to talk to other institutions in the LA
Speaker 1: area to ensure sometimes that if we're collecting a particular
Speaker 1: subject area or if you think of a community or neighborhood,
Speaker 1: that we're not competing in some way. But I don't
Speaker 1: think at this particular point in time with with this
Speaker 1: subject matter, with with the Corona, that we're competing in
Speaker 1: any way. But I think that in the future, if
Speaker 1: there's ever an effort to for us, for US or
Speaker 1: other institutions to have programming, certainly with exhibitions UM and
Speaker 1: with with developing other product as I referred to it
Speaker 1: for the visitor experience. There's always the opportunity to find
Speaker 1: out what somebody else has and to borrow um that
Speaker 1: for an exhibition or access photographs or you know, textual
Speaker 1: content or something like that to to add it to
Speaker 1: whatever we're doing. Very cool. What is going to happen
Speaker 1: to all of these materials once they're admitted? The Corona
Speaker 1: Collective on our website is as I as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: is one part of a larger initiative to document the
Speaker 1: Corona virus pandemic. The material that's supplied online by the
Speaker 1: public is uploaded, and there's a we have to go
Speaker 1: through the technical aspects. There's a release form that everybody
Speaker 1: has to complete, and anyone under a team has to
Speaker 1: have permission signed by by parents. Anything that's uploaded becomes
Speaker 1: the property of the Atlanta History Center allow us to use,
Speaker 1: and we don't. We don't guarantee to to use or
Speaker 1: save absolutely everything, but it does become part of the
Speaker 1: collection of the Atlanta History Center, and in two ways,
Speaker 1: we preserve that for our own use and exit vision
Speaker 1: or online content as well as as part of our
Speaker 1: research collection. Also making that available to the public to
Speaker 1: be able to access to use for research or other
Speaker 1: methods so that if somebody was using if somebody was
Speaker 1: creating a documentary about the pandemic and they were looking
Speaker 1: at Atlanta, they could come to the Atlanta History Center,
Speaker 1: they could review these materials, and they could possibly use
Speaker 1: any of this content in creating a documentary. And I
Speaker 1: just I used that It's just one example of how
Speaker 1: the public I might be able to access this material
Speaker 1: and use it themselves working with the Atlanta History Center
Speaker 1: in some format, in addition to the History Center using
Speaker 1: it as as the institution. So I have to ask,
Speaker 1: do you have a favorite item that has been submitted
Speaker 1: so far? That's um, that's the that's the hard one,
Speaker 1: because they're they're all great. Um. Just getting the submissions
Speaker 1: has been I have been has been rewarding that the
Speaker 1: people are doing this, and frankly, we've been very very
Speaker 1: pleased with the response that this has this has received.
Speaker 1: One thing that we haven't received yet is that we
Speaker 1: are working with a local school and the students have
Speaker 1: been assigned a project to create their own digital journals
Speaker 1: to be able to supply. We haven't received those yet,
Speaker 1: but I think up to sixties students have been tasked
Speaker 1: with with doing this. I look forward to saying that.
Speaker 1: I think that at this point in time, probably the
Speaker 1: thing that was most moving for me was one of
Speaker 1: the very earliest donations that we received, and that was
Speaker 1: simply the story of a woman who had the virus
Speaker 1: and and she just she discussed the difficulty she had
Speaker 1: and obtaining medical assistance in getting a test to find
Speaker 1: out if she actually had the virus, and then and
Speaker 1: then her description of suffering through it and she recovered
Speaker 1: and supplied this to us. It's it's a moving document
Speaker 1: to read and to understand the loneliness um of this.
Speaker 1: And that's another aspect that my niece, who I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier is a nurse, and her discussion of the fact
Speaker 1: that people are dying alone and she has to be
Speaker 1: there and help those people because family and friends can't
Speaker 1: be there with them in this pandemic, and how difficult
Speaker 1: that is for people to suffer through. It's interesting because
Speaker 1: I wonder if all of these people who contribute, surely
Speaker 1: they have some sense of it, but if they really
Speaker 1: realize how incredibly important and meaningful all of this is
Speaker 1: going to be down the road when these are really
Speaker 1: like the truest words you could speak are those of
Speaker 1: someone experiencing a moment. It's fascinating to me and I
Speaker 1: hope they understand the gravity of just I hope, I
Speaker 1: hope they do. UM. The fact that they are taking
Speaker 1: that effort to make this documentation to help us with
Speaker 1: this is meaningful. I think that one aspect again is
Speaker 1: that the fact that these are the voices of people
Speaker 1: who are living at this moment in time. And so
Speaker 1: many people think of history as being name states and places,
Speaker 1: and that's um and it's not about memorizing those facts.
Speaker 1: It's about understanding how people lived, and it's and the
Speaker 1: relevance of that to our lives today. Having more voices
Speaker 1: that can represent that experience just adds to the complexity
Speaker 1: and understanding of history. And so, yes, this will be
Speaker 1: in the past, and somebody in the future will be
Speaker 1: making a decision about what to keep or not to
Speaker 1: keep from our contemporary collecting, but they'll have a wealth
Speaker 1: of material to choose from from a wide variety of people,
Speaker 1: and I think that's a very important aspect. So last question,
Speaker 1: do you stay pretty objective about it or do you
Speaker 1: have a hope of how all of this will be
Speaker 1: seen in a hundred years A hundred and fifty years, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Do you think about the legacy of the work you're
Speaker 1: doing right now or is that too heavy? I M
Speaker 1: that's a hard one. That's sorry, okay, um. I think
Speaker 1: I think about in one aspect. I think I think
Speaker 1: about this as it's my job, and so I do it.
Speaker 1: It's but that's not to say that it becomes a
Speaker 1: a hump drum, daily exertion or or something. Because what
Speaker 1: we do, we understand the people that I've worked with
Speaker 1: that it's a mission and it's cause. And I think
Speaker 1: that despite the day today aspects of a of a job,
Speaker 1: we know that the job we're doing is rewarding and
Speaker 1: we know that it serves a purpose. I let me
Speaker 1: give one example, and that's from our Veterans History Project,
Speaker 1: which is an ongoing oral history project that we have
Speaker 1: in documenting the experience of veterans in a variety of conflicts,
Speaker 1: and obviously one of those is World War Two. And
Speaker 1: at this point in time, so many of the veterans
Speaker 1: from World War Two are dying, and so we are
Speaker 1: we're working diligently at this point in time to document
Speaker 1: as many as we can. We have had a few
Speaker 1: experiences recently in which some veterans who had been interviewed
Speaker 1: in the last few years had passed away, and we
Speaker 1: have received communication from family members, children, grandchildren who then
Speaker 1: came across the recordings because the veterans get a copy
Speaker 1: of their their interview, and we get that response from
Speaker 1: from family members about how much that means to have
Speaker 1: that voice telling that story, and so um we work
Speaker 1: at the stage today, but but we understand the importance
Speaker 1: of it, and I can tell you it's it's a
Speaker 1: very rewarding job that we did. So one day people
Speaker 1: will be talking about the remaining people who lived through
Speaker 1: this moment in time, and we'll have this amazing collective
Speaker 1: that you guys have put together. So thank you for that. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, Michael. Thank you so much for sitting with
Speaker 1: me today and being so patient with all of our
Speaker 1: technical issues and just being a delight in sharing your
Speaker 1: knowledge with us. It's really important, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you. One of the really unique aspects of this
Speaker 1: set of interviews is how both Sheffield and Michael spoke
Speaker 1: about the social change that was likely to come from
Speaker 1: living through the pandemic. But of course, little did any
Speaker 1: of us know when we were having these talks that
Speaker 1: just we away was an entirely different and very profound
Speaker 1: moment of potential for social change. So it is almost
Speaker 1: a historically interesting thing in terms of looking at recent
Speaker 1: history because we see how quickly our mindset shifted from
Speaker 1: focusing on this one thing to a whole other set
Speaker 1: of things that now are compounding together. So thanks again
Speaker 1: to the Atlanta History Center and to Sheffield and Michael
Speaker 1: for taking the time with Holly, and Howard Posner, who's
Speaker 1: their manager of media relations, who helped Holly get these
Speaker 1: talks arranged and scheduled. You can check out what's happening
Speaker 1: currently at the Atlanta History Center at Atlanta History Center
Speaker 1: dot com, and you can participate in their crowdsourced Corona
Speaker 1: Collective by visiting Atlanta History Center dot com slash research
Speaker 1: slash Corona dash Collective. And the History Center has also
Speaker 1: been doing some really good virtual programming throughout the shutdown.
Speaker 1: If you are listening to this episode on the day
Speaker 1: it comes out, which is June five, there is actually
Speaker 1: a virtual talk scheduled tonight with Stacy Abrams that is
Speaker 1: sure to be really amazing. Uh. If you want to
Speaker 1: get in on that go to their page and search
Speaker 1: for it. I think it's on their front page right now.
Speaker 1: You do have to make an online purchase of her
Speaker 1: new book to get access to that event. That's kind
Speaker 1: of like what your ticket becomes. Uh, and you end
Speaker 1: up getting assigned a book I think in the mail.
Speaker 1: But check that out for more details. And again, I
Speaker 1: super want to thank Howard and Sheffield and Michael all
Speaker 1: for helping us put together this picture. It's UM. I
Speaker 1: am very excited at the prospect of their exhibit with
Speaker 1: a roll of toilet paper front and center with a
Speaker 1: spotlight on it that Michael talked about. UM. I also
Speaker 1: have listener mail which is related UH. And this listener
Speaker 1: didn't really want me to necessarily mention their name. They
Speaker 1: said that they were shy, but they wanted to bring
Speaker 1: to our attention a cool project that is going on.
Speaker 1: I will read their email in part and hopefully that
Speaker 1: will be cool. Uh and they will mind. UH. They're
Speaker 1: write longtime listener, first time writer. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for keeping us informed and entertained during this challenging time.
Speaker 1: I was really excited to hear you discuss the Corona
Speaker 1: Collective project at the Atlanta History Center because there is
Speaker 1: a similar COVID nineteen journaling project at the Wisconsin Historical Society,
Speaker 1: which this person has some connections to, and UH, they write,
Speaker 1: I know that museums and historical societies around the world
Speaker 1: how similar projects in the work right now, and I
Speaker 1: feel so proud and inspired by how historians archivists at
Speaker 1: all are using their resources to keep people engaged and
Speaker 1: helped document history as it happens. So there's more to
Speaker 1: this letter, but as I said, they didn't want to
Speaker 1: um really really be called out for it. But I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that anyone who is listening checks
Speaker 1: out Wisconsin History dot org. UH if you want to
Speaker 1: go to their COVID nineteen Big History landing page that
Speaker 1: is Wisconsin History dot org slash Big History is happening, UH,
Speaker 1: and then you can also search around on their site
Speaker 1: because they also have a journal project that's going on
Speaker 1: as well as a poster project that's going on that
Speaker 1: you can check out. And it's really really cool. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, Michael also mentioned UH an effort going on
Speaker 1: in New Orleans we mentioned when we talked about all
Speaker 1: of this before, like check out your local history museums
Speaker 1: who are probably doing similar things. Or their historical societies
Speaker 1: that probably have similar projects in the works, and make
Speaker 1: sure that you participate if you want to, because this
Speaker 1: is going to be a really cool thing for future
Speaker 1: historians and researchers to have access to so that they
Speaker 1: know what regular people were actually thinking and doing as
Speaker 1: they lived through all of this. If you would like
Speaker 1: to write to us, you can do so at History
Speaker 1: Podcast at i heart radio dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find us everywhere on social media as missed in History
Speaker 1: and UH. If you would like to subscribe to the show,
Speaker 1: we would be delighted to have you. You can do
Speaker 1: that on the I heart radio app, at Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever it is you listen. Stuff you Missed in
Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For
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