Introduction

This body of work comes from University of Florida students enrolled in Dr. Louise Newman’s “From Headlines to Histories” course during the fall semester of 2021. The class seeks to instill an appreciation for the longer historical trajectories behind current news events. To get introduced to this concept, students were instructed to emulate historian Matthew Frye Jacobson by taking a picture that contained within it an accumulated history that future historians might study to better understand our present society. As Jacobson put it, we were to capture “the past in the present and history in the making.” During class discussion on the photographs, broader themes emerged from the individual submissions that together gave insight not only into how Gainesville was coping with the coronavirus, but how various historical forces were still influencing our modern experience, even if often ignored. Eager to share this unique perspective, students Aidan Housden, Rebecca Dennis, Skye Jackson, and Michael Wilson worked with the Matheson History Museum to edit and curate the photographic analyses into a formal exhibit for public consumption. We hope that this collection of reflections can provide a glimpse into today’s anxieties and complexities as visualized by UF students, and encourage a deeper admiration for the many layers of history that have led us to this moment.

COVID-19: UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL

Introduction by Skye Jackson

The earliest months of the coronavirus pandemic exposed many thinly veiled truths about our society, demonstrating most vividly, perhaps, the deeply rooted importance of a sense of community in our country. Whether your community consisted of family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers, the distance COVID-19 imposed upon us was felt by everyone. The battle became not only one of public and personal health, but of the effects of isolation, loneliness, and longing for connection. This social isolation took on a different appearance all around the world. Here in Gainesville, for example, this manifested in online Zoom classes, empty churches, and coffee shops that had previously been packed, and a socially distanced football stadium with cardboard cut-outs of celebrities and Gators fans. We went on daily walks, read book after book, binged movie after movie, and passed the time with long phone calls with loved ones from whom we were separated.

We all dealt with the effects of isolation in very personal ways. While some people were able to channel the period into one of self-growth, fitness prioritization, and planning for the future, others found themselves struggling with the weight of the uncertainty they were facing, often alone. This period not only affirmed the need people have for each other, but fueled tensions over what the best way to get back to normal would be. Heated debates over masks, vaccines, and quarantines resulted in the reemergence of prevalent questions we’ve debated throughout our country’s history: as Americans, what do we owe each other? Where do we draw the line between our individual rights and the common good? Does that line exist at all? This collection of photos and their associated commentary explore these themes, placing Gainesville within the larger picture of the American response to the personal effects of COVID-19. While it was a time which was certainly defined by loneliness, uncertainty, and isolation, it was also a period of reflection with the potential to inspire personal growth and ignite in our country an appreciation for togetherness and the power of unity.

NOW HIRING ESSENTIAL WORKERS

Introduction by Rebecca Dennis

When lockdowns began in the United States in March of 2020, we coined “essential workers” to differentiate those who could still attend work in person. Initially, the term was used to describe those in the healthcare industry and later included grocery stores, restaurants, and fast-food workers. While everyone else began working at home, these people still had to report to work every day with new safety measures and less help. Over a year later and we are still struggling to return to business as usual. Many uncertainties and inconsistencies remain regarding appropriate business practices with the delta variant on the rise and a shortage of reliable workers. Every business has been struggling with short staffing, and small businesses have been hit the hardest. Many have had to close for multiple days per week to give employees a break, and others have had to shut down entirely. Large corporations offering higher wages have attracted more employees, but it hasn’t been altogether successful. These positions are not respected yet essential for our everyday lives. Workers have accumulated horror stories of impatient, rude customers who expect a service level that has become impossible since the coronavirus surged. These photographs of Gainesville capture the essence of the lasting effects of the pandemic in 2021 on all businesses. In short, they tell the story of businesses struggling to keep up in the “post-pandemic” world.

COMMUNITIES GRAPPLING WITH CHANGE

Introduction by Aidan Housden

The coronavirus pandemic has had a tremendous effect on the individual. Our daily routines were upended with sudden closures and home quarantines, and most of us have spent much of the last year and a half trying to cope with the anxieties of a changed world and construct a “new normal.” It should come as no surprise then that these forces that have so disrupted our personal lives have also deeply rocked the pillars of our communities. Local businesses, which provide culturally vital forums for locals to interact in, were shuttered, many permanently. With the daily outings of work, school, and recreation curtailed, many became engulfed in isolation, disconnected from our social networks and left to manage the crises of a once-in-a-century pandemic largely on our own. Add into this mix a historically polarized political environment that seeks to pit one half of Americans against the other, and it’s easy to see how the bonds that unite residents through community have been weakened. In these pictures, you'll see individuals reacting to the collapse of this old communal solidarity with forlorn nostalgia, hoping that our “new normal” can eventually come to resemble how the world was run before.

However, all that time at home also gave us a chance to ponder whether the old way of doing things was really the right way of doing things. For many, the widespread devastation of this global catastrophe was not generated solely by the mere misfortune of an infectious disease, but compounded by political, economic, and social inequalities embedded in our existing institutions. People of color, like African Americans and Native Americans, have long been deprived of the full benefits of American citizenship, creating systemic disadvantages that contributed to their disproportionately high COVID-19 rates and financial difficulty from the ensuing recession. While local business closures were expedited by the pandemic, they are in line with a longer trend that has empowered big corporations to dominate over smaller ones, hurting small business owners and their ability to cater to the unique needs of their communities. This tension, between those wishing to reform, those wishing to return, and those who desire some of each, is the hidden subject of the photos in this collection. As our communities have been put under immense stress from the pandemic and developments years in the making, it will be up to individuals to reconceptualize what it means to be part of one.

PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS OF GRIEF

Introduction by Michael Wilson

In a year where COVID-19 took something different from all of us, whether it be loved ones, time with family and friends, or just the normalcy of everyday life, grief is the one thing we all share in 2021. Each of us reacts differently to loss; some get angry and lash out at the world, while others withdraw into themselves and appear detached. Public memorials are often an outlet which transcend our personal grief and offer us a chance to come together and remember what or who was lost. These pictures, and the descriptions which accompany them, each represent an interaction with these public spaces by a student within the University of Florida community. Each one is a snapshot of both the public grief expressed through the memorial and how the individual author felt privately about the event or person being commemorated.

The pandemic has exacted a heavy toll on our society and exposed divisions within our country that had long been simmering. There will be a time when it too shall pass, and we come together again to publicly remember both those we lost and the tribulations of those who lived through it. Until we can build our own coronavirus memorials, we are left to deal with our private grief in whatever ways we can. The following photographs and text bring both the public and private aspects of loss into view.