Welcome back, students! Help us make history on Sept. 8

  • Three students writing postcarsd at a table
August 31, 2021

What excites you about being on campus? Stop by the table in front of Sterling Memorial Library on Wednesday, Sept. 8 between 2-4 pm to write your answer on a postcard. Contribute a valuable primary source to the University Archives and receive a Yale Library giveaway! There will be leather-bound journals for the first 100 participants and an endless supply of stickers, pens, and snacks.

This event is part of the Help Us Make History project, established to document the academic and personal experiences of Yale students, faculty and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in their own words and images. The materials gathered through this effort will be preserved in the Yale University Archives and serve as a critical resource for future students, historians and others seeking to understand this extraordinary period in Yale’s history.

The library launched the project in in May, 2020 and since then has been gathering responses to a series of online prompts. The first prompt, “Share a picture of your study space” elicited 66 photographs of students’ remote learning spaces. Other prompts asked students to comment on distance learning, virtual social activities, and other personal and academic experiences. Read more about the project in this May, 2021 story.

Contributions can also be received directly on the Help Us Make History website.