Mattapoisett Museum Journal Project Seeks Your History

“Wet and cold again… The cholera seems to increase in England… Rode out and visited an aged woman, quite low. Am troubled with a stiff neck. Omitted going to Rochester, as I intended, on account of the weather.” – Diary of Thomas Robbins, Mattapoisett. April 28, 1832.

            The Mattapoisett Museum wants to document your lives during this historic pandemic. We want to record life in Mattapoisett during the COVID-19 emergency by encouraging you to keep a journal of your life and activities as a witness to this unprecedented time. In addition, keeping a journal can help you cope with the stress and anxiety we are all experiencing. 

            Everyone is having unique experiences at this time such as having kids out of school, working at home, serving the public as a first responder or providing other essential services. Recording these experiences of your day to day lives for posterity gives future generations insights into historic events from a personal level. Keeping a journal can also allow you to reflect on and cope with your experiences.

            While you may think your day to day lives are mundane and trivial, future generations will want to know what you thought and experienced during this time. At a later time, the Mattapoisett Museum wants to collect your journals to record your history and that of the community during this unique period in history.

            You can document your lives by thinking about how your daily routines have changed. Think about your interactions with family, friends, neighborhoods, work colleagues, and religious or volunteer groups, your thoughts and feelings on the current crisis, or anything else you wish to write about.

            The Mattapoisett Museum plans to catalog, preserve and make available any donated journals. Your journal can be handwritten, typed and printed or written digitally (PDF, Word, etc). Please include your full name as the author of the journal and the dates of your entries including the year. The museum will be asking for journal donations at a later time.

            For any questions or if you would like to be contacted to donate your journal, please contact the Mattapoisett Museum at director@mattapoisettmuseum.org or leave a voicemail at 508-758-2844. Please note that the museum is currently closed and voicemail will only be checked periodically. 

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