In the historical record, when we see notes about the weather, a shopping list, records of births, marriages, and deaths—the mundane details of a past human life— they can jolt us out of our present moment, fire up our imaginations, and bring forth new meaning and perspective. When future beings look to the records of our lived experiences to help understand their own present, similarly mundane details are likely to become poignant testimony about our lived reality.
Consider the potential future significance of journals and diaries created in the present moment, while we live under quarantine during the global pandemic COVID-19.
We invite you to create your own written record of some aspect of your life during the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be as simple or elaborate as you want:
Note the weather from the window that you look out of every day. Keep track of your Zoom appointments and school work. Track your daily activities like workouts, books you are reading, or TV shows you are watching. Write out your grocery lists: What do you need? Was the toilet paper sold out? Like to draw? Make a sketch. Like to cut and glue? Make a scrapbook. Anything goes!
Read Andrea Krupp's full post about diaries and journals, find some inspiration from our collections, and download instructions on how to make your own pocket notebook here. If you choose to share some pages from your journal on social media, please tag us @librarycompany and #notetofutureself, we’d love to see what you do.
Image 1: Poor Will’s pocket almanack, for the year 1828. [Philadelphia]: Kimber & Sharpless, [1827] with manuscript notes of Mary Robinson Morton.
mage 2: Artist and LCP Conservator Andrea Krupp's notebooks and journals










