Community Stories: Pandemic Sparks Renewed Interest in History

Back at the end of April, during the early days of self-isolating (coronavirus pandemic), I was following a writer on a Facebook group called “Nostalgic Nawlins Memories.”

Every day, this person, Derby Gisclair, posts a New Orleans-related photograph from the past with a short commentary. As I was trying to think of something I could do to “help” during these trying times, I was inspired by Mr. Gisclair. I thought: I can write, I do genealogy, I love local history (Columbus, Ga.), and I like research (retired Columbus State University librarian).

I got the idea to post something every day on the “Early Columbus Georgia” Facebook group I belong to. However, instead of using photographs, I realized I would use historic Columbus newspapers—available to all from the Georgia Historic Newspapers site.

And, that’s what I have done: Starting on April 28, 2020, I began posting a “Today in Columbus History” piece in the Facebook group.

So far, the response to these posts has been good. I get a lot of “likes.” The number of comments may vary from five or six to 40! I don’t know how long I’ll keep this up. It is time-consuming, but, nerd that I am, I enjoy it (the tedious research part). Plus, what else do I have to do?

Well, I could always be vacuuming or cleaning out closets or watching “Midsomer Murders” or talking on the phone or cooking up a fabulous dish or…

– Callie McGinnis, retired dean of libraries, Columbus State University

(This piece is taken from a longer blog post that originally published on Digital Library of Georgia.)