Collecting Community History Initiative: The West During COVID-19

The Autry Museum of the American West is helping communities across the West identify and preserve items of historical and cultural significance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Autry has launched its Collecting Community History: A Regional Collections Initiative of Exploration and Preservation. It is the first in a series of efforts to support communities in the West collect, catalogue, and preserve moments of history—past and present.

History is being made NOW. COVID-19 has altered our daily lives in ways that are profound and will shape our behavior, communities, and society for generations to come. Despite being physically apart, communities persist and flourish through creative forms of sharing, from the sharing of oral histories online to family recipes and the creation of masks that both keep us safe while speaking to our individuality, communities, and culture.

The Autry wants to work beside you in preserving this moment. They invite you to share an aspect of your creative practices and ways of staying connected during this time, such as journal entries, recipes, and pictures of face masks during this quarantine. The Autry will be highlighting some of these different objects, images, and experiences on their blog, The Autry Files.

Please use the interactive form here to share your experiences and materials with The Autry.

For questions, e-mail communications@theautry.org.

Images top to bottom courtesy of The Autry Museum of the American West and Harry Gamboa Jr., Social Distance Lineup TARGET from COVID-19: Era of Masks series. ©2020, Harry Gamboa Jr. Produced in partnership with the Autry Museum’s Collecting History Initiative.