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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Interpreting history/artifacts


andigger

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This general topic gets so little attention, I thought I'd add just a little flavor.

Perhaps all the battlefields are not in danger, or perhaps they are all doing quite well due to the lack of threads in the part of the forum. ;) I was wondering though what the general out look for the historic areas are for coming generations. I know after the war there was a move to plough over the scars and forget what happened. Now, particularly in the British sector almost every available inch is marked. Here in the southern part of the US there is a similar move to perserve anything that might have even slightly been involved in the Civil War.

One of the better parts of our preservations, not that its not happening in Europe, its just one of the parts I am most proud of over here, is the effort to add interpretation to the artifacts and battlefields. I think it helps put a lot in context, especially for people who might only be visiting a spot because it was in a tourist book.

I think of the Historial as an excellent example on the front, and the In Flanders Fields Museum. Are there other efforts to interpret history on the front? Just curious... Andy

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Andy,

From my point of view the In Flander's Fields Museum doesn't do a very good job with the interpretation of the artifacts and relics from the Great War. Very little is there to explain what each artifact on display is or how they were used. It took me three trips to realize that the big cylinder they have on display was a gas cylinder and not part of some flame-thrower type apparatus.

I will give them credit for interpreting what it was like to go off to war in 1914 but after that it just kind of loses it's effect, for me at least. I will also give them high praise for the poets audio visual display, in Flander's Fields poem and Dulche Decorum Est (spelling way off never took Latin). That is my favorite exhibit in the whole place.

Well that's my take on In Flander's Fields Museums efforts. I've seen other museums on the Western Front and some do a good job while others do poorly in my book. I'm afraid I don't have the time to fully give my 2 cents at the moment but I'll try to get back in on your thread latter.

Thanks for brining this up, I'm sure you'll get lots of feedback!

All the best,

Jon

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People just don't read text panels - any more than 200 words and it's a lost cause I'm afraid.... I don't read them and I work for a museum. The aim in our museum is to get people stuck into the collection and begin writing a history themselves, rather than letting us do it for them. People always want it all written down for them, they want you to do all the work then give it to them gratis, but isn't it much more satisfying, adventurous and empowering to do it yourself? We're a volunteer force so we need all the help we can get and frankly haven't the time to do all the interpretation for every genealogist who comes through the door. That's not being miserly, it's being pragmatic and getting people to think for themselves. But I digress.

re: interpreting history at the front, forget smell-o-vision text panels, get some decent guides and ask questions.

re: gas cylinders - I agree, if there's no-one to ask and no label then you're stuck.

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Simon,

I can sympathies with you on the labels point. I took a museum & archives class my senior year at University and we had to do an exhibit at the local museum as our part of our final term grade. What a nightmare we had deciding how to label the artifacts. In the end we opted for the tags with name and one short sentence descriptions. Which in it's self proved difficult because we had to figure out how to explain things in very few words. Hard mental work to say the least. :blink:

Still had there been a label by the gas cylinder that said "Poison Gas Cylinder" I'd have been good to hook first visit. <_<

Jon

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I guess you can't spoon feed every visitor, and I guess to really get the most out of a museum visit the patron has to do some preliminary research on their own. I guess what I am using as my baseline are the Civil War museums here in Virginia. Not only are the maps interactive and for the most part the movies are up to date and in vivid color, but the battlefield driving tours are really good too. There are cannons along this ridge, with a free stand plaque describing who fought here and why they won/lost.

I think there are several reason that the Civil War is remembered with such vigor here, but I think all of them come to a premise that the next generation can relate in some way to the events. And to give credit to dollars well spent, I think that understanding is due to the interpretation offered by the museums and the guides.

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  • 2 months later...
I guess what I am using as my baseline are the Civil War museums here in Virginia.

I think that the preserved ACW battlefields have a head start. The battles were still only a day or three in duration in the main and the sites are quite small in comparison to WWI.

Although driving through the Somme battlefield on the D929 in a modern car takes but a few minutes and gives the impression of a small area, it is of course many, many square miles, with rebuilt villages and agricultural land. Apart from a few locations, it is impossible to mark up the entire battlefield in the same was as, say, Gettysburg. Visitors need at least a good guidebook and some knowledge of the battle to begin to make sense of it all. Plus, battles could last for weeks or months.

Museums help with this and the display of artefacts is an important aspect. I think they at least need to be labelled to say what they are. For instance, a British 18pr shell needs to be identified as such. And it would help to learn that it was the main field artillery piece used by the British Army in WWI. I think that some pointers to further information are also helpful for those who want to know more. Then again if a particular artefact has a history of its own and is not just an example, this needs to be stated too.

Museum visitors may not need to be spoonfed, but they need the food and the spoons to do it for themselves.

And finally, context, context, context. I visited the French Army Museum at les Invallides a few years ago. Stuffed full of artefacts, but no context. Oh how dull and boring! I understand that it has since improved. The Imperial War Museum was like it in the 1960s and look how that has come on since.

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Museum visitors may not need to be spoonfed, but they need the food and the spoons to do it for themselves.

Very well put, like it.

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The battlefield at Killiekrankie is good for its use of a large diorama showing where everybody was at various times. You get a very good idea looking from the diorama out over the ground. This minimises the ' panel ' effect of some museums.

Aye

Malcolm

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