The Imperial War Museum’s First World War Centenary Partnership has created a programme of events to mark the centenary of the first world war, including hundreds of exhibitions at museums and galleries all over the UK.
Many of these have received support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The exhibitions below give a flavour of how museums are using their collections to mark the anniversary of world war one.
Goodbye Piccadilly – from Home to the Western Front
Until 8 March 2015
London Transport Museum
Goodbye Piccadilly remembers the contribution and lives of London’s buses and their drivers in the first world war. It also looks at the impact of bombing on Britain’s cities and how the London underground was used as shelter. Another focus of the exhibition is how the lives of women changed when they took on jobs previously occupied by men, such as working as bus conductors and porters, and guards on the tube.
Warhorse to Horsepower
Until 31 December
The Tank Museum, Dorset
Using original vehicles and model horses alongside interactive displays, the museum hopes this exhibition will have a multi-generational appeal and commemorate men and horses in both world wars. The key emphasis is on the British Army’s transition from horsed cavalry to armoured vehicles and the reasons behind this major shift in land warfare.
Next of Kin
April 2014 – March 2015
National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle
This exhibition is using the National War Museum’s collection to reflect on a range of stories about the experience and human cost of the first world war. It is showing how families coped with the absence and loss of their loved ones, and used objects to remember them. Next of Kin will tour eight venues around Scotland until 2018 after it finishes at the war museum in March next year.
Duty Calls: Sewerby Hall in Time of War
Until 1 September
Sewerby Hall, Bridlington, Yorkshire
Sewerby Hall was converted from a country house estate into a convalescent hospital for injured troops during the second world war. The exhibition contrasts the experience of the Lloyd Graeme family, who owned the house during the first world war, with what happened during the second conflict.
Legacy: Two Works On Hope and Memory
Until 2 November
Forty Hall and Estate, Enfield
The Grade 1-listed Jacobean building is hosting two contemporary craft installations that contemplate themes of commemoration, remembrance and the significance of the first world war. These are Everyman’s Dream by Clare Twomey and Reliquary for a Common Man by Julian Stair.
Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour
Until 12 October
British Library, London
Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour uses posters, poetry, art, books and pamphlets to explore how people coped with life during the war. It looks at attempts to boost morale at home and in the trenches. There are also personal accounts of individuals such as letters from Indian soldiers on the western front, schoolboys’ descriptions of London air raids and accounts of soldiers taken from trench journals.
Valour, Loss & Sacrifice: Chatham, The Royal Navy and the War at Sea
Until 30 November
Historic Dockyard Chatham
This exhibition will use first-hand accounts, personal effects and items such as paintings, pictures and poetry to explore the role played by Chatham Dockyard, its workers and the Chatham Division of the Royal Navy during the first world war. Artefacts are drawn from the national collections of Imperial War Museums and the National Maritime Museum, complemented with previously unseen items from the Historic Dockyard Chatham’s own collection.
The Sensory War 1914-2014
11 October 2014–25 January 2015
Manchester Art Gallery
This group exhibition will explore how artists have communicated the impact of military conflict on the body, mind, environment and human senses between 1914 and 2014. Artists represented include artists include Paul Nash, Otto Dix, Nancy Spero, Richard Mosse and Omer Fast. It will also feature works by the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which were created in the 1970s and are being shown in the UK for the first time.
Outbreak 1914: Royal Fusiliers Go to War
4-31 August
The Fusilier Museum, London
The Fusilier Museum is hosting this exhibition in partnership with the National Army Museum (NAM). It will commemorate the role the Royal Fusiliers played during the war and will draw on artefacts, photos and stories from the NAM’s collection relating to those who fought in the capital’s iconic regiment. The exhibition will explore the early experiences of the regiment in the war, from recruitment techniques used in the London area to the heroic efforts of the regiment’s soldiers in action once they arrived at the front.
First World War: reflecting on Liverpool's Home Front
Until March 2015
Museum of Liverpool
This will explore some of Liverpool’s lesser-known stories of the war. It will include a special display recording the outcome of a Heritage Lottery Fund-backed community collecting project about the city’s black and minority ethnic communities during the period. The exhibition will also look at the role of women and industrial action by workers.
The Horse at War: 1914-1918
25 November 2014–1 March 2015
The Lightbox, Woking, Surrey
The Lightbox gallery and museum is looking at the role of the horse in world war one. It will compare the glorified image of officers and their chargers at war with the reality of these animals as beasts of burden when faced with gunfire and trench warfare. ‘Joey’, the original West End horse puppet from the National Theatre’s stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel War Horse, will feature in the exhibition.
La Grande Guerre: French prints of the First World War
Until 28 September
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
An exhibition featuring 36 colour lithographs and woodcuts from the print series La Grande Guerre. Scenes of action in the form of battles, sieges and airstrikes are punctuated by moments of relative repose, including commemorations, award ceremonies and depictions of the Allied forces, such as the English and Scottish taking five o’clock tea and Indian soldiers at prayer. The series, which was published in Paris, took inspiration from popular genres of prints, such as the inexpensive folklore-inspired images d’Épinal, produced in the northeast of France.
Pictured from left to right:
Many of these have received support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The exhibitions below give a flavour of how museums are using their collections to mark the anniversary of world war one.
Goodbye Piccadilly – from Home to the Western Front
Until 8 March 2015
London Transport Museum
Goodbye Piccadilly remembers the contribution and lives of London’s buses and their drivers in the first world war. It also looks at the impact of bombing on Britain’s cities and how the London underground was used as shelter. Another focus of the exhibition is how the lives of women changed when they took on jobs previously occupied by men, such as working as bus conductors and porters, and guards on the tube.
Warhorse to Horsepower
Until 31 December
The Tank Museum, Dorset
Using original vehicles and model horses alongside interactive displays, the museum hopes this exhibition will have a multi-generational appeal and commemorate men and horses in both world wars. The key emphasis is on the British Army’s transition from horsed cavalry to armoured vehicles and the reasons behind this major shift in land warfare.
Next of Kin
April 2014 – March 2015
National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle
This exhibition is using the National War Museum’s collection to reflect on a range of stories about the experience and human cost of the first world war. It is showing how families coped with the absence and loss of their loved ones, and used objects to remember them. Next of Kin will tour eight venues around Scotland until 2018 after it finishes at the war museum in March next year.
Duty Calls: Sewerby Hall in Time of War
Until 1 September
Sewerby Hall, Bridlington, Yorkshire
Sewerby Hall was converted from a country house estate into a convalescent hospital for injured troops during the second world war. The exhibition contrasts the experience of the Lloyd Graeme family, who owned the house during the first world war, with what happened during the second conflict.
Legacy: Two Works On Hope and Memory
Until 2 November
Forty Hall and Estate, Enfield
The Grade 1-listed Jacobean building is hosting two contemporary craft installations that contemplate themes of commemoration, remembrance and the significance of the first world war. These are Everyman’s Dream by Clare Twomey and Reliquary for a Common Man by Julian Stair.
Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour
Until 12 October
British Library, London
Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour uses posters, poetry, art, books and pamphlets to explore how people coped with life during the war. It looks at attempts to boost morale at home and in the trenches. There are also personal accounts of individuals such as letters from Indian soldiers on the western front, schoolboys’ descriptions of London air raids and accounts of soldiers taken from trench journals.
Valour, Loss & Sacrifice: Chatham, The Royal Navy and the War at Sea
Until 30 November
Historic Dockyard Chatham
This exhibition will use first-hand accounts, personal effects and items such as paintings, pictures and poetry to explore the role played by Chatham Dockyard, its workers and the Chatham Division of the Royal Navy during the first world war. Artefacts are drawn from the national collections of Imperial War Museums and the National Maritime Museum, complemented with previously unseen items from the Historic Dockyard Chatham’s own collection.
The Sensory War 1914-2014
11 October 2014–25 January 2015
Manchester Art Gallery
This group exhibition will explore how artists have communicated the impact of military conflict on the body, mind, environment and human senses between 1914 and 2014. Artists represented include artists include Paul Nash, Otto Dix, Nancy Spero, Richard Mosse and Omer Fast. It will also feature works by the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which were created in the 1970s and are being shown in the UK for the first time.
Outbreak 1914: Royal Fusiliers Go to War
4-31 August
The Fusilier Museum, London
The Fusilier Museum is hosting this exhibition in partnership with the National Army Museum (NAM). It will commemorate the role the Royal Fusiliers played during the war and will draw on artefacts, photos and stories from the NAM’s collection relating to those who fought in the capital’s iconic regiment. The exhibition will explore the early experiences of the regiment in the war, from recruitment techniques used in the London area to the heroic efforts of the regiment’s soldiers in action once they arrived at the front.
First World War: reflecting on Liverpool's Home Front
Until March 2015
Museum of Liverpool
This will explore some of Liverpool’s lesser-known stories of the war. It will include a special display recording the outcome of a Heritage Lottery Fund-backed community collecting project about the city’s black and minority ethnic communities during the period. The exhibition will also look at the role of women and industrial action by workers.
The Horse at War: 1914-1918
25 November 2014–1 March 2015
The Lightbox, Woking, Surrey
The Lightbox gallery and museum is looking at the role of the horse in world war one. It will compare the glorified image of officers and their chargers at war with the reality of these animals as beasts of burden when faced with gunfire and trench warfare. ‘Joey’, the original West End horse puppet from the National Theatre’s stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel War Horse, will feature in the exhibition.
La Grande Guerre: French prints of the First World War
Until 28 September
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
An exhibition featuring 36 colour lithographs and woodcuts from the print series La Grande Guerre. Scenes of action in the form of battles, sieges and airstrikes are punctuated by moments of relative repose, including commemorations, award ceremonies and depictions of the Allied forces, such as the English and Scottish taking five o’clock tea and Indian soldiers at prayer. The series, which was published in Paris, took inspiration from popular genres of prints, such as the inexpensive folklore-inspired images d’Épinal, produced in the northeast of France.
Pictured from left to right:
- Valour, Loss & Sacrifice: Chatham, The Royal Navy and the War at Sea, at Chatham Historic Dockyard, Kent
- The cast of War Horse at the New London Theatre, on display in The Horse at War at the Lightbox, Surrey. Photo by Brinkhoff Mögenburg
- La Bataille de l'Yser, 1914, one of a series of lithographs on display in La Grande Guerre at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
- Making Aircraft - Acetylene Welder 1917 by CRW Nevinson, on display in The Sensory War at Manchester Art Gallery (cropped)
- Laurence Binyon’s manuscript of For the Fallen, on display in Enduring War at the British Library, London © The Society of Authors.
