Censor's Museum

[NigelS]

An article in today's Daily Telegraph (19th May), Cast-iron insights into war as the enemy saw it, reviewing a current British Museum exhibition, The other side of the medal: how Germany saw the First World War, mentions that the German propaganda medals it features were originally held by the 'Censor's Museum'. I have been unable to find any trace of this 'museum' having been mentioned on the forum before, and a brief search indicates that the limited amount of information readily available on-line is mainly from contemporary newspapers & periodicals. From the Daily Telegraph article and the contemporary articles it seems that the 'museum' was not what would we would generally consider to be a museum today, but rather a store/archive of articles impounded by the Censor's Office for the duration of the war and made available to the UK press - not the general public - for their potential propaganda value.

contemporary articles etc:

The Spectator 29th July 1916 An interesting description of what is called the Censor's Museum... (this covers an article that had recently been published in The Times - see below)

The New York Times 25th February 1917 Gifts for Kaiser in Censor's Museum (NB this is a pdf file)

The Times (NB access is probably required for the links to work) 25th July 1916 *** The Censor's Museum: Ingenious Contraband Devices & 12th Dec 1916 The Censor's Museum: Intercepted Enemy Letters

*** if The Times Archive isn't available the article was reprinted in the Bahamas Tribune of the 29th August, 1916 available as a pdf file

Another pdf of The Mails as a German War Weapon: Memorandum censorship of mails carried by neutral ships (1916) has contemporary images of the museum, as does Popular Mechanics January 1917, Trying to beat the blockade, (Page 81) which has specific details of some of the contraband.

Hansard of 1st April 1919: Censor's Museum & a further Times article War History in Models: Imperial War Museum developments of 16th July 1921 indicate that some (if not all) of the items impounded were never forwarded to their intended recipients post war - as is , obviously, the case with German propaganda medals currently on display at the British Museum.

NigelS

[Guest thockenhull]

Hello, I can send you a pdf of an article about the British Museum and the Censor's Museum, if of interest. Email thockenhull@britishmuseum.org

Tom Hockenhull