Meghan Plucinski's History 3993 final exam

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Description

Meghan Plucinski's final exam for History 3993 taught by Dr. Helen Dixon.

Creator

Plucinski, Meghan

Date

2020-05-04

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Meghan Plucinski
May 4, 2020
HIST3993 Final Exam Question 2

2a. This notebook has been the essential communication between me and my mother for running
errands for her. Since she has been in lockdown due to her being immunocompromised, I
have had to go to different stores for groceries or home improvement projects in her
place. Typically, she would text me letting me know she needed some errands done and
then I would drive over to her house and the notebook would be sitting between the
screen door and the main door. After completing her lists, I would drop them off on the
porch and she’d bring them inside. While the notebook would need some context, I think
that it would help a future audience realize that families were apart but still helped each
other the best they could.

My next object is an essential worker letter from my job since I work as a flight attendant on
weekends. I was provided this letter from my company and is a blanket letter because we are all
spread throughout the country. This letter and my badge would exempt me from any fines I
might get if a police officer were to stop me on my way to or from the airport during the stay at
home order. This essential worker letter along with a variety of similar letters from other

essential jobs, would demonstrate to a future audience what we considered essential and how we
dealt with stay at home orders.

The most obvious object would be masks. These were handmade by a lady on the website Etsy.
It is significant to my experience during the pandemic because I am required to wear one while
working along with my mother and grandmother needing a cloth mask to go to doctor and
treatment appointments. This would be the most recognizable object for a future audience and
would show the measures people were taking to protect themselves from the virus. Plus, different
cloth masks show different personalities.

The final object that is significant to my pandemic story is the IRS sending me the tax credit. It
helped me since my hours have been drastically reduced at work. The letter is just telling me
where the money has been deposited and how much. For future audiences, they will see that the
government was trying to help the people.

b. The three objects or documents ECU should actively try to collect from current students would
be:
1. I think the first thing ECU should actively collect would be masks. Each student is
different so the masks might be different. They could have paper, surgical masks or fun
creative cloth masks. The collection of masks might also contain homemade masks that
students made from cutting off shirt sleeves or other unique low budget ways to create a
face covering. These would demonstrate to a future audience that ECU students were
resourceful and creative while trying to protect themselves and others.
2. The second object ECU should actively try to collect would be journals. These would
vary from student to student but would highlight each students journey through the
pandemic. For a future, wider audience, they would be able to see how ECU students felt
and dealt with the pandemic in their own ways.
3. The final document ECU should try to collect are photographs. These photographs
would be about what the students were doing during lockdown. The photographs could
also demonstrate how they were reaching out and helping their community. For example,
my mother has taken pictures from inside the house of me dropping groceries off. I feel
that this would help demonstrate the resilient, giving spirit of ECU students going
through a scary time.

c. In regards to a collections care plan, most of the collection would either be paper or cloth.
Naturally, paper and cloth are the more fragile materials to preserve. I would make sure we were
to photograph each item that came in so that the items could at least be viewed digitally. Cloth
masks would be placed individually in their own acid free boxes in a temperature-controlled
room. When being displayed on exhibit, I would ensure that they were rotated out every so often
so that they don’t get worn out so easily. The paper documents such as the essential worker letter
or the stimulus check letter would be digitized and have a humidity and temperature-controlled
space. The ECU student journals would each get their own boxes and placed in a light free area
to preserve the ink and pages. The photographs would also be scanned on to an online database
and would live there. Photographs may even start out online and would not make much sense to
print them out just to stress about them deteriorating with being in direct sunlight or incorrect
objects placed in the exhibit space with them. When displaying them on exhibit 5-10 years from
now, it might even be a more unique experience for a visitor to “flip” through the photographs
like a virtual photo album.
The knowledge I think that will get lost along the way would be some of the personal stories. For
example, my mom’s errand notebook. I know what it is and why it was a significant part of my
pandemic story but a visitor 5-10 years from now may not understand it. Another problem might
be that ECU students might not want their personal items on display in an exhibit. Their journals
may be a very personal thing for them, and the student could be protective of that. The
knowledge of why certain people could carry essential worker letters could get lost too. While
some may realize that it was just to make sure people stayed home, some may think that it was a
more militant tactic to use on the people.

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