The First World War: Personal Experiences
Editorial Board:
Professor Holger Afflerbach
University of Leeds
Dr Bruno Cabanes
Yale University
Professor Holger Herwig
University of Calgary
Dr Anthony Heywood
University of Aberdeen
Professor Gerhard Hirschfeld
University of Stuttgart
Professor John Horne
Trinity College Dublin
Dr Kate Hunter
Victoria University of Wellington
Dr André Lambelet
Quest University, Canada
Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Philippe Oosterlinck
Hooge Crater Museum
Professor Robin Prior
University of Adelaide
Dr Sophie De Schaepdrijver
Penn State University
Dr Adam Seipp
Texas A & M University
Professor Gary Sheffield
University of Birmingham
Professor Jonathan Vance
University of Western Ontario
Professor Jay Winter
Yale University
Nature of the Material:
This module will comprise three strands:
- Individual Experiences
- Trench Literature
- Images of War
Materials are comprised of:
- Diaries and journals
- Letters
- Personal narratives and reminiscences
- Trench literature and soldiers’ journals
- Postcards
- Scrapbooks and albums
- Photographs and 360° views of personal items and objects
- Sketches and paintings
- Ephemera
- Sheet music
- Photographs
- War art
- Cartoons and comics
- Propaganda and recruiting posters
- Trench maps
Scope of the Collection:
Personal Collections; Diaries, Letters, Scrapbooks and Other Ephemera:
Hundreds of personal collections comprising diaries and letters, scrapbooks and albums, notebooks, photographs, sketches and paintings, maps, postcards, greetings cards, souvenirs, manuscripts and typescripts, diagrams, orders, official documents and correspondence, and a wide range of ephemera including tickets, leaflets and programmes for events.
Key Feature: Digitised Artefacts Collection:
The resource will include a significant collection of digitally captured objects used during the war period which have been sourced from museums and collections in the Ypres region. Many smaller and medium size objects are presented in 360 degree mode such as helmets, gas masks, hats, shells and grenades.
The high resolution still images of original artefacts range from medical items, chaplain's kit, a French artillery howitzer, machine guns and other weapons through to communication equipment and trenching tools. There is a large selection of still images of cap badges and unit insignia. We also include a wide range of typical personal items used by the soldiers in a dugout, from cigarette packets, playing cards, shaving utensils and mess kits, to food tins, bottles and other fixtures of daily life in the trenches.
Key Feature: Interactive Maps:
In partnership with Axis Maps we have developed custom built interactive maps to display a narrative of the war. The maps will include animations of the major fronts and key battles as well as providing contextual information on the conflict. Users will be guided through each map with explanatory text alongside the animations. The maps include:
- Animated maps of the Western Front, Eastern Front, Italian Front, Balkans, Middle East, Gallipoli and Naval Blockades
- Further animated maps of key battles such as the battles of Verdun, the Somme, Ypres, Chemin des Dames, German invasion of France, East Prussia and the Spring Offensive.
- Contextual maps will display information on the pre-war alliances and war plans as well as tracking countries entering the war and displaying pre and post war territory changes.
The entire maps application has been arranged in a temporal format allowing users to pause an animated map at any time and see what was happening meanwhile on a different front by switching to any of the other maps. Primary documents from our collections are integrated into the map narratives to allow the user to connect with the personal experiences of those involved including items such as journal entries, photographs and postcards.
Key Feature: Virtual Trench Experience:
We have a developed a virtual trench experience using the preserved original trench system at the Sanctuary Wood Museum in Ypres Salient. In this section users will find information on the history and background of the trench system and its usage in the Flanders conflict as well as original trench maps of the area. Users can virtually explore Sanctuary Wood using the extensive walkthrough images by navigating themselves forward through the trench system as if walking there in reality. There is also a series of 360 degree panoramas taken from various points to give viewers a broader perspective of the entire area.
Visual Material:
A wealth of visual source material, including photographs and albums, postcards, panoramic views, war art, cartoons, comic strips and trench art, which manifested itself in a wide variety of forms.
Material from the Vera Brittain Archive
Including her remarkable war-time diaries and letters, and a heavily annotated first version of her celebrated autobiography Testament of Youth.
Trench Literature.
A large and diverse collection including British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and French trench journals, German army trench newspapers and US camp newspapers.
International perspectives
Material covering Africa, America, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Middle East, New Zealand and Poland.
Secondary Sources
An array of useful secondary sources, including scholarly essays written by members of our editorial board, a slideshow gallery, teaching pages, interactive maps, chronologies and ‘My Archive’, a place where users can create personalised slideshows, save searches and build a library of documents.
Source Libraries:
- Cambridge University Library
- Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart
- National WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial, Kansas City
- Mills Memorial Library, McMaster University, Canada
- Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
- Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
For example:
Cambridge University Library
We include trench journals, personal narratives and reminiscences from the Library’s renowned War Reserve Collection, with additional material from the general manuscript collections. Professor Jay Winter has described trench journals as an “indispensable source for any study of the military and social history of the Great War” and Cambridge is one of only a few libraries rich in this material.
Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart
We include material from the Library’s extensive collection of German trench newspapers. Titles include Feldzeitung der 5. Armee: Neueste Nachrichten, Kriegs-Zeitung der 4. Armee, Armee-Zeitung Jildirim, Deutsche Kriegszeitung von Baranowitschi and Der Stosstrupp: Feldzeitung der Armee-Abteilung A.
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
We offer a wide ranging selection of diary and letter collections from the prominent Liddle Collection. Included are the papers of British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops serving on the Western Front and in Africa, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine and Gallipoli.
Mills Memorial Library, McMaster University, Canada
The Library has a long history of collecting on the subject of war and peace. The Library’s First World War collections are wide-ranging in scope and rich in visual content. We have digitised a major part of their collection and will include hundreds of personal collections, albums, photographs, trench journals, aerial photographs and their fabulous trench map collection in the first module of our project. We are also delighted to be including material from the Vera Brittain Archive in the project: users will be able to read her remarkable war-time diaries and letters and a heavily annotated first version of her celebrated autobiography Testament of Youth.
National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, Kansas City
We also include a great selection of US camp newspapers from the Museum’s collections. Included are newspapers of the American forces in occupied Germany, such as The Amaroc News and The Watch on the Rhine. We will also be including a wealth of visual sources from the Museum’s archive.
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