New First World War Galleries at Imperial War Musuem

Stimulating new galleries at the Imperial War Museum to mark the centenary of the First World War.

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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