Tag Archives: ICCHS

The Visual Heritage of the Losing Side: Orphaned Souvenirs of the First World War

Research Seminar – Professor Mike Robinson, University of Birmingham

Wednesday 11 March 2015,  1-2pm @ Room 1.06, 18 Windsor Terrace – All welcome

Within the context of revived public interest in the First World War as part of the ongoing centennial of the event there is much co-remembrance being performed in the collective realm. The memorials and cemeteries of the dead provide the material prompts and emotional signposts for commemoration. In addition there are countless personal objects – medals, letters etc. – that now help construct the narratives of the Great War Event. Drawing from a collection of vernacular photographs, this presentation examines images and objects from German soldiers and problematises them as dis-connected heritage of the First World War; objects with historical meaning but that exist outside of collective memory or at least a different conception of collective memory.

Mike Robinson is Professor of Cultural Heritage at the University of Birmingham UK. He is also Director of the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage and Trustee of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and World Heritage Site.

For more information, visit the ICCHS Research Blog.