The New Ipswich Historical Society held their April meeting in the midst of state-wide shutdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We held the meeting remotely using Zoom, a video chat application. We started the meeting by discussing what life is like with a statewide “stay at home” edict.

The original mission of the Society was “to discover, secure, and preserve whatever may relate to the natural, civil, literary, family and ecclesiastical history of the town”.

It is obvious that this Pandemic has has had an effect on each one of those criteria. The Schools are closed, people are out of work, families have canceled large weddings, church services are conducted online. Restaurants have either closed or transitioned to take-out food services.

We realize the historic importance of this time for our town, our country and the world, so we discussed ways to gather first hand accounts. I’m hoping that people will respond to this post with their own stories of what it is like to live in a Pandemic. The Monadnock Center for History and Culture, in conjunction with the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript is compiling an archive of the COVID-19 crisis. They are looking for citizen-historians to provide photos, essays and journals about the ways this pandemic has impacted our lives.

The town has postponed ALL the recreation activities. There will be no Memorial Day ceremonies on May 17th. Sadly the Green Center will remain closed till further notice.

What is your story?

We are all citizen-historians in this crisis. Are you teaching your children at home? Learning how to work remotely? Sewing masks? Finding creative ways to deal with stress? Are you a health care worker? Let us know. Thanks and be well.