Now, more than a year since the coronavirus pandemic forced the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to shut down and declare a state of emergency, we continue to look back on the loss and experiences of our community. With the recent Cape Ann Museum COVID-19 Memorial at the CAM Green, and the 2020 Porch-Rait exhibition, we at the Museum hope to continue the documentation and remembrance of this unprecedented year in our world’s history. As with many of the historic and challenging moments that have touched our community (military conflicts, the 1918 pandemic, the Great Depression, civil rights movements, the Perfect Storm , and many more), future generations will look back to this moment to see how we, Cape Ann, endured.
The Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives requests donations of material from the community to help us record our collective experiences during this past year. Examples include photographs or videos showing lines at the grocery store, empty shelves and streets, or the joy of seeing loved ones for the first time in months, outdoors and socially distanced. The documentarians among us are invited to share the diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories, and paper records that would give insight into what 2020 meant to Cape Ann. With these materials, the CAM Library & Archives plans to build a collection that will allow future generations to know what it was like to live through this historic moment.
The form below will guide you through the donation process. Digital items can be uploaded directly. For physical items, someone will contact you shortly. If you don’t have physical or digital items you would like to donate, we invite you to write down your experience of 2020 in a word document and share that as a digital submission.
If you would prefer to submit via email, please reach out at Library@capeannmuseum.org or if you would like to discuss a possible donation, please call (978) 283-0455 ex.119.