COVID-19 Pandemic Collection

Collection

Call Number: MS269

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Scope and Contents

The COVID-19 Pandemic Collection contains material documenting COVID-19 and its impact on faculty, staff, and students at Tufts University. Photographs, videos, diaries, written reflections, oral history interviews, and web captures document the Tufts Medford campus, faculty and staff work, and how students' lives changes a result of disruption to the Spring 2020 semester. The vast majority of materials in this collection were created in 2020. There are a few items digitized in 2020, for which the originals date to 1949 -- 1953 and 2003, documenting the life of alumnus Vincent Maniero.

Dates

Creation: circa 1949 -- 1953, 2003, 2020 -- 2021
Creation: Majority of material found in 2020

Access

This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Tufts Archival Research Center website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish.

Biographical / Historical

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19 in infected patients, was identified in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. It was known for being highly contagious, as well as for causing fever and respiratory symptoms in infected patients. By February 2020, the virus had spread outside of China into Europe and other areas of the world, causing stay-at-home orders to be implemented, and schools and non-essential businesses to close. In the United States, the closure of most businesses caused a rapid spike in unemployment across the country.

On March 10, 2020, Tufts University announced that all classes would be moved online, and that all on-campus facilities would be closed for the remainder of the semester, requiring students to move out of dormitories by the end of the week. Commencement for graduating students was subsequently moved online, with a later in-person date to be announced when it was safe to do so. The university made changes to its academic grading system, with faculty voting to allow undergraduate students to opt-in to a pass/fail grading system for any class regardless of any requirements. On March 15, 2020, the university announced that all staff would begin working remotely by March 17, 2020 unless their work required them to report to campus in order to maintain operational and academic continuity. The university additionally opened up its residence halls to local hospitals to house patients, first responders, and essential workers.

Extent

191 Digital Object(s) (Of the 191 digital objects, one digital object comprises 98 files.)

12.95 Gigabytes

483 Web sites

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19 in infected patients, was identified in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. By February 2020, the virus had spread outside of China into Europe and other areas of the world, causing stay-at-home orders to be implemented, and schools and non-essential businesses to close. On March 10, 2020, Tufts University announced that all classes would be moved online, and that all on-campus facilities would be closed for the remainder of the semester, requiring students to move out of dormitories by the end of the week. The COVID-19 Pandemic Collection contains material documenting COVID-19 and its impact on faculty, staff, and students at Tufts University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Ana Sophia Ascota, 2020, MS-2020-062; Jeffrey Rawitsch, 2020, accession MS-2020-063; Lauren Soherr, 2020, accession MS-2020-065; Jake Zaslav, 2020, MS-2020-067; Luke Allocco, 2020, accession MS-2020-068; Silvia Bottinelli, 2020, accessions MS-2020-069 and MS-2022-023; Annie Ziwen Yin, 2020, MS-2021-001; Elizabeth Mainiero, 2020, MS-2021-002; Sarah Wiener, 2020, MS-2021-003; Tony Monaco, 2020, UA-2021-005; John Wescott, 2020, UA-2021-002. Oral histories transferred by Chelcie Rowell, 2021, UA-2023-082.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Records and Accesioning Archivist, Jane Kelly, in 2020 and 2021. Web crawls were managed using Archive-It by Jane Kelly and Digital Archivist, Margaret Peachy. Oral history interviews were processed by Sally Benny, Digital Archivist, and Kate McNally, Records and accessioning archivist in Summer 2023.