NHS Voices of Covid-19: Covid Conversation online event

19 Oct 2021

Collecting through Covid-19, 12.30 - 1.30pm (BST) Tuesday 26 October 2021

Covid-19’s social significance as a public health crisis is unprecedented in living memory and a watershed in the longer history of the National Health Service (NHS). The ways in which we live, work, and think about our health have changed profoundly and the story is not over yet. We do not know how, or when Covid-19 will pan out, but we do know that we are all actors in an historic moment.

Historians, archivists and curators have a responsibility to document and preserve these socio-cultural transformations for future generations through collecting personal testimonies, objects and ephemera. History tells us that, as in the case of the Spanish Flu, collective memory can fade rapidly after health crises. The collecting process can play a vital part in helping individuals and communities to make meaning from their lived experiences as well as creating resources for now and in the future.

One year on from our first event which focused on the early responses from historians, archivists, and curators to collecting pandemic-related material, we reflect on what we have learnt about the benefits and challenges of working through this crisis period.

• Priorities and/or issues have informed collection strategies?
• To what extent will Covid-19 material be integrated with existing collections?
• How easy has it been for people, communities, and organisations to collaborate around collecting?
• What have been the upsides of collecting during crisis?
• What have been the challenges of collecting during crisis?
• How can the material be used to shape and inform societal pandemic recovery?
• And what are the ethical considerations of collecting in crisis?

Join our panel of speakers to discuss what we have learnt over the past year about collecting through Covid-19: 

• Natasha McEnroe, Keeper of Medicine, Science Museum, London 
• Elizabeth Crooke, Professor of Heritage and Museum Studies, Ulster University and Principal Investigator of the UKRI-funded Museums, Crisis and Covid19: Vitality and Vulnerabilities project 
• Sam Jenkins, Collections Officer, Peoples History Museum, Manchester 
• Caylin Smith, Head of Digital Preservation, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge  

Regsiter to attend

• Sign up via Eventbrite

This series of events is part of a major public history programme – NHS Voices of Covid-19 – led by Professor Stephanie Snow and the NHS at 70 team at the University of Manchester and undertaken in partnership with the British Library. Supported by a grant from UK Research and Innovation, through the Arts and Humanities Research Council, we are developing a national collection of personal testimonies and in-depth reflections around Covid-19 that will be preserved as a permanent public resource for informing policy and practice and form part of a wider British Library Covid-19 collecting initiative. 

Please share: Twitter Instagram Facebook LinkedIn #NHSVoicesC19. 

Questions can be forwarded in advance to nhs70@manchester.ac.uk.

Future events and more information can be found at nhs70.org.uk