The Office of Historic Alexandria has recorded our community's response to the pandemic by collecting objects, images and stories from citizens across the City. See a sampling of this public history collecting effort, and learn more about contributing to this on-going project.

At a time when our museum doors have mostly been closed to the public, this deeply important public history project seeks to connect with our community and document now and for the future how Alexandrians are responding to, experiencing and coping with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Office of Historic Alexandria invites the community to contribute to this national story at our local level by sharing photographs, journals, personal stories, home-made items, and other artifacts that capture this unprecedented moment in our history. The initiative will reach out to residents, businesses, schools, health care workers, churches, and civic organizations to collect and record our community’s response to this public health crisis.

Share your stories about living or working in Alexandria during the Covid-19 emergency. How has your life and that of your family changed? How have you been able to help others? How have others helped you? What have you noticed that is different about Alexandria? Do you have artwork, objects or photographs that can help us document the impact of the pandemic on our community? 

At this time, we ask that you hold on to objects that may be considered for future acquisition, but you may submit images which will help our curatorial staff select representative items from all sectors of the Alexandria community.  Objects accepted for donation will not be collected until sometime after the stay-at-home order is lifted and the museums are once again open to the public.

Please fill out this form to share your story, and to share information about objects that you are interested in donating to the museums. 

Use this form to share your story!

You can attach up to five items to the survey, if you wish. 

• Your original writings (Word or PDF)
• Your original drawings/artwork (JPG, PNG or PDF)
• Your original photographs (JPG or PNG)
• Your original short videos (provide link to YouTube, or submit files up to 16 MB.
• Photographs of objects, for consideration for acquisition (JPG or PNG) 

Would you like to be interviewed by our Oral History team? If you indicate on the form that you are willing to be interviewed, our staff will review the information that you submitted for consideration for an interview. We regret that we cannot interview everyone who might be interested. We will attempt to select stories that are representative of different segments of the community. See The Alexandria Oral History Center for more information.

To encourage conversations at home, the education team has created an activity packet for elementary students to use with their family.  

Family History Activity

Help spread the word, so that others in our community can share their story.

Chronicling the Pandemic: Alexandria's Story

• English language flyer
• Spanish language flyer
• Amharic language flyer
• Arabic language flyer