2020 Novel Coronavirus Hesston Family "Porchtraits"

In 2019-2020 a novel coronavirus mutated and spread around the world, causing a sometimes deadly disease in humans, commonly termed COVID-19. By early Spring 2020 it had arrived in Kansas, and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly closed school buildings March 17 for the remainder of the academic year, then issued a statewide "Stay Home order" to combat the spread of the disease. For about a month, Kansans were directed to stay at home unless performing a number of defined "essential activities." As custodians of Hesston history, the Hesston Public Library joined others in a project to document this unusual time, through informal portraits of families at home. Since part of the order named that outdoor activities with distance between households were still considered safe, many families posed on their front porches, and the mashup term "Porchtraits" was born.