2020 – What a Year!
2020 has been a historic year, which will be remembered for generations to come. The most affecting event was, of course, the covid-19 pandemic, when we all had to make changes to the way we live and work.
But other events dominated the local, national and international news headlines: the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the Black Lives Matter protests and the climate change demonstrations.
When I tell people that I work for Gloucestershire Archives, they think that it is merely a collection of dry and dusty documents going back hundreds of years. What people tend to forget, is that an archives collection is an organic thing – it grows, it reflects what’s happening today (as well as what happened centuries ago) and it is our responsibility to ensure that our collections – kept for posterity – reflect and represent what is going on right now.
Archivists are, in a sense, collectors of stories. And there have been countless stories to be told, and heard, in 2020. In particular, we have tried to encourage people from all walks of life, and all ages, to document their lived experience of the covid-19 pandemic – with diaries, blogs and other records of how they coped. We haven’t seen anything like this covid-19 pandemic, affecting the whole world, since the global Spanish flu outbreak just after World War 1, at its peak in the UK in 1918-1920.
The difference between 1918 and 2020, of course, is that we have better medicines and preparations for a range of vaccines; better technology, including a more established mass media; social media; mobile phone apps and a range of services (including the NHS) that just didn’t exist in 1918.
Back in the summer, I read a novel, set in Dublin, about the Spanish flu epidemic. It was, ironically, published during the long, summer lockdown. Historically, it was interesting to see how people a century ago were affected by a pandemic; the novelist had done meticulous research into the social, economic and political context of the period, sometimes using archives collections to get the detail that she used to such great effect in the novel. I was so moved by the novel, that I emailed the novelist (something I have never before done), and we had an interesting exchange about the impact of history, and about “history in the making”.
History in the making is a curious and little considered concept – at least, it was to me, when I started working at Gloucestershire Archives. Our collections are many and varied, but the ones that always intrigue me – and leave me wanting to know more – are the first-hand accounts, by ordinary people, about how they coped; with war, floods, disasters and, yes, covid-19.
I’m aware of a small community project, in a Gloucestershire town, where volunteers have (as part of their allowable daily exercise) been walking the streets, during the long, first lockdown, photographing notices in shop and café windows. Some of these were perfunctory – “Sorry, we’re closed, due to coronavirus”. Others were more optimistic: “We’re all in this together! We look forward to welcoming you back when it is safe to do so”. And yet others were really rather solicitous: “We are currently closed – we will be back – meanwhile, please take care and stay safe.” Some had hand-coloured rainbows, or emoji’s of clapping hands, representing people’s appreciation of the NHS and the clap for carers. What do these photographs tell us? I suppose they tell us that we each have our own way of coping. But it is also details like this that paint a picture – for the researchers in many years to come – of what the mood was like, what people in the street saw and experienced. It is also this level of detail – gleaned from research in several archives – which the novelist I mentioned used to such effect in her fictional account of how Dublin’s citizens dealt with their very own pandemic a hundred years ago.
2020 has, indeed, been a year we will never forget. In a professional sense, it has served to remind me of the need for archives collections, and the importance of what we do day to day.
Sally Middleton - Community Heritage Development Manager – Gloucestershire Archives
Take a peak here at some of the work that takes place at Gloucestershire Archives