COVID-19 Face Shield
date: label: date made
content: April 2020
name: label: user
content: Minehart, Janna
notes: label: Description
content: Hand-made face shield made from a sheet of transparent plastic, a strip of foam, and a black 1-inch elastic band. The foam strip and elastic head band are glued and stapled to the plastic sheet. "J. MINEHART, M.D." is hand written in black marker across the front of the shield.
label: Description
content: This shield was made by medical students at New York University (NYU) for hospital staff working with COVID-19 patients. It was used by Janna Minehart, a recent medical school graduate, working at the hospital at that time. Minehart recalled: "As I began work, PPE was in short supply and lack of adequate protection was a major concern. My friends participated in grassroots efforts to collect extra masks to distribute to healthcare workers. Medical students stapled transparency sheets onto elastic bands to make us face shields. Infection control administrators assured us that these handmade face shields were in fact superior to commercial ones because of the additional staples they contained. Many of us wrote our names on the face shields so that patients and colleagues could tell who we were underneath our PPE. "
label: Description
content: One of the communities hardest hit by the pandemic was health care workers in hospitals and clinics dealing directly with infected patients. Personal protective equipment (PPE) - including masks - was in short supply and both individuals and organizations stepped up to help fill this
label: Description
content: gap. Medical health care workers also developed their own creative solutions. This accession includes objects that illustrate both tendencies: a face mask made by and donated by NYC designer Christian Siriano, who "turned his fashion house into a mask factory," and a home made-face shield made by NYC medical students. Both items were donated by Janna Minehart. Minehart was one of many NYC senior medical school students who chose to graduate early in
label: Description
content: April 2020 in order to join the staff in hospitals inundated by COVID-19 patients.
label: Description
content: The New York City metropolitan area was hit hard by COVID-19 in Spring 2020 and hospitals were quickly overrun with COVID patients. In response to the immediate need for additional health care workers, thirteen New York medical schools offered their 4th year students the
label: Description
content: opportunity to graduate early and join hospital staffs.* Janna Minehart was one of 52 senior students from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, who opted for this opportunity. In April 2020 she joined the staff at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: related event
content: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Janna Minehart
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0088.02
label: accession number
content: 2022.0088
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0088.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: face shield
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic; elastic; foam; glue; metal staples (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 20.5 cm x 29.5 cm x 4 cm; 8 1/16 in x 11 5/8 in x 1 9/16 in