The Trials and Ethics of Rapid Response Collecting

In April of 2020, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History launched a task force charged with collecting and documenting the impact of COVID-19 on history and culture. At a moment's notice they had to formulate a collecting strategy and begin the acquisition of objects and archives that documented a crisis that even now, almost 2 years later, continues to unfold.

On this #ARCSchat, we spoke with our guests Alexandra Lord and Joshua Gorman, the chair of the Division of Medicine and Science and Head of Collections Management respectively, about how they devised and implemented a collections strategy, and went about the task of documenting a crisis while in the crisis.

As the collection of objects relating to COVID-19 is ongoing and the institution wishes to cast a wide net, if you feel like you have a relevant artifact please contact the museum at inquiry@si.edu.