New First World War Galleries at Imperial War Musuem
These galleries
really had everything you might want if you are, like me, a First World War
geek! They go through the war chronologically but use certain events to pick up
themes, for example grouping pieces about medicine in the war at the point of a
battle with large numbers of casualties.
Many of the
sections had a feeling of being not just a museum gallery but an installation
such as the almost futurist cut out of marching me onto which was projects
poppies and men falling in battle. Also the recreation of a trench with a real
tank poised above it.
I liked the way
they often used reproduction of items but put them in your space not in a
cabinet which gave a feeling of immediacy and also the fact that there were
sometimes flip boxes of photographs so you could discover more or the odd pull
out draw. Although it was too crowded when I went to pull the draws out!
The gallery also
tackled events which impacted on the war such as the Easter Rising and the
Russian Revolution well. Giving just enough information to mark them as an
event but concentrating on the effect on the war.
My only gripe
(apart from the crowds but that’s my own fault for going in the school
holidays) was the lighting in some of the cases. There were some very elegant
thin free standing lights on two supports at the front of some of the cases.
However unless you got right over the case some of what was in it was blocked
by the light. With the crowds it was difficult to get right over the cases. I
do suspect that as I go to so much I am getting over critical!
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