THE FIRST WORLD WAR GALLERIES: THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON

Hello dear and faithful readers. I have something a bit different for you today— a guest post! My ever charming and intelligent boyfriend James, who writes about books on his blog over here, thought it would be fun to take a little step into my world by gushing about an exhibition he liked. He was a history student and so was entirely in his stride at the recently reopened Imperial War Museum. Enjoy! - K

So Kay has allowed me to write a guest post on this blog – presumably because she wants to insert some actual God’s-honest History into her Art so-called ‘History’ blog’s repertoire.  So for all those of you for who say ‘art shmart’, prepare to be satisfied.  Maybe.  I’ll do my best.

The front of the IWM.  The Guns are from a Queen Elizabeth-class Royal Navy Dreadnought from 1914.  They're HUGE.

The Imperial War Museum in London has been closed for around 18 months for a much needed refurbishment and reopened this July.  When compared to some its illustrious counterparts such as the British Museum and the Natural History museum, the IWM always seemed a little tired and dated.  Part of the problem is a lack of space, and I’m very surprised that they didn’t attempt to extend.  This was especially obvious on my visit as it was full of visitors, clearly keen to see what they had done with the place.

The IWM is based around a central atrium with most of the permanent exhibitions being housed on five floors of balconies above.  The rest of the space lies at the far end of the museum.  The museum is mostly focused on twentieth century military history, with floors dedicated to WWII, the Cold War, espionage, and contemporary security.  If your historical interests end when guns are loaded from the breach, then this is not the place for you.

The Atrium has replica warplanes and a V1 and V2 rocket. Very cool.

They also have some pieces from more modern conflicts.  This is what remains of a car that was parked next to a suicide bomber in Iraq.  Really brings home the devastation that such a device can impart.

Though there are many excellent exhibitions currently running at the IWM, in this post I’d like to focus on the current main exhibition, the First World War Galleries.  It being the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, all things history are jumping on this band-wagon, but for an institution as eminent as the IWM, it’s vital that they do this well.

The first thing you notice is the incredibly British way that you enter.  To get in, you first have to join the long, snaking queue and I assumed that this was organised somehow, but actually the queue arranged itself into a neat line, and it made steady progress into the gallery, fanning out at the end.  No staff, required: we’ve got this.

The exhibition is arranged chronologically, starting with the alliance system that brought war to a Europe that had largely been at peace for 100 years, and ending with the defeat of Germany and some reflections on the long-term impacts of the war.  Given its reputation for being little old-fashioned, I was really impressed with the mixing of new and old techniques used to tell the story of the ‘war to end war’.  

The space itself was kept fairly narrow, with exhibits, storyboards and cases on either side, reminiscent of the trenches that were such a huge feature of the war.  You are hemmed in by people, but not so badly that you feel claustrophobic – it’s really well designed.  Where there aren’t cases, the walking space is flanked by a concrete barrier around 3 feet high with quotes and facts carved into them. 

One of the more modern pieces. Soldiers go 'over the top' and are mercilessly cut down, projected onto a cutout of soldiers gallantly rushing into battle.

Sounds of gun and shell fire as well as aeroplanes flying overhead were played, not at a level that would distract you from concentrating on the information in front of you, but enough to put you just a little on edge.  The space is kept fairly dark, with focussed lighting on the exhibits and information boards.  These boards are pitched at an inexpert level to ensure accessibility, but the breadth and quantity of information meant that even a history-nut like myself did not feel patronised.  There were also interactive touch screen monitors that allowed you either a quick overview of a particular battle or campaign, but also went into impressive depth should you wish to spend the time. 

Whenever you cover the Great War, there is always the problem of balance.  If you overload visitors with the morbid macabre nature of the conflict then it all can become too overwhelming.  The dead become nameless statistics; the experience becomes a shapeless hermaphroditic mound of suffering, and then you lose the individual tragedies.  You also want to be inspired by the acts of extraordinary compassion and heroism that took place throughout the conflict, rather than simply overwhelmed by the slaughter.  

The way to do that is to not solely take a broad overview - you need to bring home the human element of the death and destruction.  The thing that resonated most with me was the jacket pictured above.  This soldier was stood next to an artillery shell that ripped his arm clean off, his jacket remaining as testament to that horrific event - one that would have happened thousands of times over.  This war saw millions of individual tragedies and it takes sometimes the simplest displays to bring this hime.

That said, there are a number of very moving pieces including a projected video towards the end of which I filmed a part.

This exhibition manages to tread this line remarkably well.  It uses the space to create much of the macabre, allowing it to tell the story more effectively, without having to continually pepper the narrative with misery.  The message is accessible but also detailed; it even has a little bit where kids can dress up as the soldiers – presumably to terrify their mothers.  Certainly it freaked out mine.

In all, I think that the IWM has done an excellent job with their blue riband exhibition.  This was something that they absolutely had to get right, and they certainly have done so.  For the uninitiated on the Great War, or those for whom it is but a vague memory from their school days or a BBC documentary, this exhibition is absolutely ideal as it allows you to go into as much detail as you want.  If you are, like me, very familiar with the material, this exhibition is still valuable as it brings home, through the sounds and visuals, some of the realities of a war that you can’t get from the pages or a book or images from a screen.

Entry to both the museum and the exhibition is free, though you have to pick up a ticket to get in when you get there as they restrict entry.  However, after 3:30 they just let you go in whenever, which is what I did.  The First World War Galleries does not to my knowledge have a closing date, leaving you with no excuse not to go – so run along now!