Category Archives: museums and archives

Next of Kin exhibition touring Scotland

next of kinThe ‘Next of Kin’ exhibition developed by National Museums of Scotland and presented at the National War Museum in Edinburgh is touring venues in Scottish towns and cities. The touring programme includes learning activities at each museum, using a object handling resource aimed at school and community groups.

A recent blog post describes the activities that took place during the exhibition’s stay in Dumfries, and its new residency at Rozelle House in Ayr. The website has been updated; a new resource section provides links to online resources created for the project, and the learning programme section provides information about associated learning activities at each museum, and will be updated for each venue.

 

Gallipoli and Scotland

On the 4th June 1915 Scottish troops of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division were landed on beaches on the Gallipoli peninsula to join the land campaign against the Turkish defenders. Further landings brought thousands of Scots into action over the coming months, alongside soldiers from France, Australia, New Zealand, and the other parts of Britain, with high levels of loss through injury and disease. In 2015 the contribution by Scottish units to actions in Gallipoli and the impacts back at home are commemorated through a series of events in Stirling, the Scottish Borders, and elsewhere.

Stirling University was the focus of commemorative events around the 4th-6th June 2015. A public lecture by historian Professor Sir Hew Strachan was hosted by Stirling University, and a video recording of his presentation is available online. Local school pupils created an outdoor installation of poppies made from recycled materials. A screening of the cinema drama ‘Tell England’, and a workshop with university academics from Scotland and Turkey, completed events over the weekend.

The University also launched ‘Creating Gallipoli’, a creative writing competition for secondary schools. “The aim of the project is for school students to engage imaginatively with the experience of Gallipoli from a variety of perspectives by writing a poem of up to 40 lines or a short story, in the form of a letter, of up to 750 words. The letter may be addressed to a family member, a friend, a lover, a newspaper etc”. Poems and stories should evoke the human side of the conflict, giving a sense of what it felt like to be a participant at Gallipoli in 1915. Workshop sessions for pupils and teachers will be run in Autumn 2015, to help students engage with the topic and enhance their writing skills. Full details of the competition are available on the web.

Over the next few months there will also be local commemorative events and exhibitions in parts of Scotland where there is a strong community connection to the Gallipoli fighting. For example, at Hawick in the Scottish Borders the local Museums service will stage an exhibition titled ‘Hawick to Gallipoli’, about the stories of young men from the area who served with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment.

 

Families and the Great War

next of kinThe ‘Next of Kin’ exhibition developed by National Museums of Scotland and presented at the National War Museum in Edinburgh has now embarked on a tour of Scottish venues which continues until May 2017. The touring programme includes learning activities at each museum, using a object handling resource aimed at school and community groups.

Its materials, objects and images give a powerful insight into the lives of some of the individuals and familes who felt the impact of the war. Personal stories are used by many educators as a means of illuminating the realities of the war and also helping to make sense of the huge numbers involved as combatants and  casualties.

A blog post describes the contents of the object handling resource, and gives examples of how it has been used to engage groups of pupils.

 

Gallipoli and education

The military and naval campaign around the Gallipoli peninsula from April 1915 to January 1916 is the subject of many resources and projects for teachers, often produced to tie in with the centenary commemoration period. Here is a selection from recent material made available by museums, cultural and media organisations, from British, Australian, German and Turkish perspectives.

The Gallipoli Centenary Education Project has been working with schools in Scotland, Education and Turkey, and has already staged one school group visit to the Dardanelles.

Imperial War Museum has many assets on offer to educators, from which I picked their “Podcast 14: Gallipoli” and a feature on an artist / seaman in the naval forces who produced wonderful sketches during the campaign.

A Commonwealth War Graves Commission newsletter for April 2015 gives details of the initial troop landings and the use of Scottish ship SS River Clyde.

An Australian government website provides an overview of ANZAC resources for teaching about Gallipoli.

Europeana’s piece entitled “Gallipoli from a different perspective” tells the story of a German pilot fighting on the Turkish side in the campaign.

Gallipoli through Turkish eyes” is an Australian historian’s view of the Canakkale campaign as seen from the Turkish defenders’ perspective.

 

 

 

Newspaper coverage of war subjects

historic1

Newspaper reports of events during World War One and in the years afterwards form a valuable asset for educators. Newspaper circulation was much higher in the 1910s than now, with more titles serving a population hungry for news of the progress of the war and the lives of their loved ones. National and local titles provided a high level of coverage of military campaigns and stories from the home front. Eyewitness testimony and the reports of journalists were complemented by photographs and graphic illustrations.

The Historic Newspapers archive is offering teachers a free teaching pack which contains selected stories and extracts about key events in the period 1914-1919, as reported in the press at the time. Titled “First World War: Teaching Resource“, it makes use of material from national newspapers of the time (The Daily Sketch and The Star) to show how particular events were reported – including the autumn offensive of 1915, the execution of nurse Edith Cavell, the Gallipoli campaign withdrawal, and the declaration of an Armistice. This material could be used to examine particular incidents or to consider a bigger theme such as the changing nature of conflict. The website provides details of how to obtain a copy.

The public library and archives services of Local Authorities often hold collections of newspapers which were published in their area, sometimes in hard copy, sometimes in digital form. Local newspapers may provide a level of detail about individuals and events on the home front in the local community which are not covered by the big national titles. For teachers it is worth contacting the services in your own area to find out what contemporary resources of this kind they may own and make accessible.

A good example of educational use of archive material, including newspaper extracts, is the Hard Vrocht Grun project in Aberdeenshire. The packs of themed material put together by project staff include many newspaper stories about themes such as recruitment and conscription, commemoration, and poverty.

When considering wartime newspapers as sources of information, teachers should consider the issue and extent of censorship of the content of the stories, in addition to the usual issues such as bias and accuracy.

 

World War One exhibitions

Many Scottish museums, archives and libraries are already staging exhibitions that relate to the Scottish experience of World War One. National and local collections hold an extraordinary range of photos, documents, and artworks which relate to aspects of the war. Here’s a selection of some of the powerful and informative shows that are on offer to the public now, and which would enhance the learning of young people studying the history of the war.

Glasgow City’s People Palace museum has an exhibition of the work of Fred Farrell,  Glasgow’s own official war artist who was commissioned by the City Council to record images from the Western Front. His sketches and drawings are well presented with background material to give extra context.

At the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh is an exhibition called ‘Behind the Lines’ which uses personal stories and documents to illuminate key aspects of the war through individual lives. The richness of the exhibition’s assets and presentation provides a powerful introduction to the subject.

At the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh the ‘Common Cause’ exhibition tells the story of the experiences of combatants of Scots ancestry who came back to fight for Britain in the campaigns in France, Belgium, Turkey and elsewhere. The Scottish diaspora responded strongly to the declaration of war, and soldiers and regiments from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Canada and the Indian subcontinent made a big contribution to the war effort.

The War in the Air

As part of commemorations to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, a ceremonial wreath was flown from Montrose Air Station in Angus to RAF Leuchars in Fife, the start of a journey south and over the English Channel to a war memorial in France.

A hundred years ago the Royal Flying Corps was in its infancy, with airpower soon to develop as a major element of modern warfare. Montrose was one of very few air stations in Britain, a centre for training new pilots and ground crew. The ceremonial flight recalls the journey of pilots and staff of the RFC squadron in 1914, who were among the “first in France” at the start of the war. A BBC news story “WW1 commemorative wreath flies from Montrose to Amiens” reports on the project, as does a report in local newspaper the Montrose Review.

Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre is already working with local schools and volunteers to develop ideas for further commemorative activity, such as the construction of a replica war plane from the World War One era.

Exhibitions

Many Scottish organisations at national and local level are planning to run exhibitions as part of their commemoration activity. These exhibitions and associated events such as public lectures will focus on particular aspects of World War One and increase public understanding of the conflict and its impacts. Such exhibitions will form very useful assets for learning about WW1, and some will be accompanied by new educational activities and workshops designed to enhance the learning of pupils and/or adults. Details of forthcoming exhibitions are now becoming public, as organisers announce their programmes for the years ahead. We will use this blog to publicise exhibitions and encourage teachers and students to engage with the material on offer. Now, two examples:

At the Scottish National Portrait Gallery an exhibition titled ‘Remembering the Great War’ will display paintings, photographs, sculpture and media relating to Scots who played some kind of role in the War in service or at home. These individuals will include Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Elsie Inglis, James Maxton, and Harry Lauder. The work of Scottish artists will also form a key part of the assets on show.

The National Museums of Scotland have published their programme for the First World War Centenary, with two major shows opening this year. At the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle, the ‘Next of Kin’ exhibition will focus on family life and personal loss. The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh will feature an exhibition titled ‘Common Cause: Commonwealth Scots and the Great War’, which will explore the contribution made by the Scottish diaspora and the impacts in Commonwealth nations such as Canada and Australia.

Letters and the Post

A new BBC news online story focuses on the importance of letters to servicemen fighting the war in places far from home. Titled “World War One: How did twelve million letters a week reach soldiers“, this story explains that the authorities recognised that communications from family and loved ones played an important part in sustaining the morale of soldiers. The government made arrangements with the General Post Office for an effective postal service to supply those soldiers with frequent deliveries of mail and to carry their letters back to Britain.

One of the BBC’s new interactive guides tells the same story but in a different format. It makes smart use of graphics, images and video to expand the narrative and include additional material such as discussion of censorship.

Letters to and from soldiers now form important assets for library, archives and museums services around Britain, as they give fascinating insights into the views of the people who fought and the people who endured the war from back at home. Their individual testimonies and stories are information sources of value to historians and educators, and many are now being digitised and made available online for any interested user.

A good example: The National Museum of Scotland online resource “Letters from the trenches” utilises personal letters to tell the story of one officer in the Royal Scots.