The COVID-19 coronavirus is the most severe pandemic to impact Long Island since the Spanish Influenza of 1918-1919. It is affecting our lives in dramatic and sometimes tragic ways. The Long Island Museum seeks to collect objects, images, and stories about this event to document for future generations how Long Islanders responded during the crisis. This material is a record of our shared history, and will influence future exhibitions, programs, research, and other projects. We are interested in how the virus has impacted victims, medical personnel and other frontline workers, the operation of businesses, schools, religious and cultural organizations, and the structure and interactions of our daily lives both large and small.
We encourage people living or working in Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens to offer contributions of any digital or physical item that documents your experience and that of your community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material may include photographs, audio, and video, signs and posters, artwork, masks and other personal protective equipment, home recipes, journals, and planners. Digital items can be emailed to research@longislandmuseum.org. Photos should be in JPG, PNG, or TIF format, audio in MP3 or WAV, videos in MP4, AVI, WMV, or MOV, and documents in PDF, TIF, PNG, or JPG.
All submissions must be by persons 18 years or older, and convey copyright (if applicable) to the Long Island Museum.
Select online submissions may be featured on our website and/or social media platforms. Due to the volume of submissions we may be unable to individually notify people if or when their digital submissions will be posted, but we encourage you to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
The museum prefers not to have objects sent to us at this time, as the offices are currently closed. We instead invite you to email us at research@longislandmuseum.org with a photo or two of your object(s), tell us a little about them, and what the best way is to contact you. Or follow this link to our submission form. This helps the curatorial staff evaluate donation offers. If you have any questions you can contact Assistant Collections Manager, Molly McGirr at mmcgirr@longislandmuseum.org or Curator, Jonathan Olly at jolly@longislandmuseum.org. 
