Tag Archives: Research

Major Miss Bell: Gertrude Bell and the First World War – Exhibition Now Online

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The exhibition on Gertrude Bell’s First World War work, previously on display in Newcastle University’s Robinson Library, is now available to view online here. Cartographer, archaeologist, interpreter, photographer, Gertrude Bell (born 1868 at Washington New Hall, County Durham) is perhaps best known as a central figure in British political movements in the Middle East during the early twentieth century. Appointed the appointed Oriental Secretary in 1917, her expertise in the geography of the Middle East led to her involvement in the Cairo Conference of 1921, in which she played a central role in the formation of Iraq. Often overlooked, however, is the range and extent of the work Bell undertook during the First World War, which took her from Boulogne to Baghdad. Curated by Dr Emma Short (School of English, Newcastle University & Living Legacies 1914-1918), this exhibition of material from the Gertrude Bell Papers, held in Newcastle University Robinson Library Special Collections, explores the impact of the First World War on Bell’s life and legacy.

Researching the First World War: Community Project Networking Event

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18 July 2016 @ Research Beehive Rm. 2.21, Newcastle University

We invite you to a networking event for community researchers working on the First World War. The event will take place on Monday 18 July 2016 at Newcastle University, and will offer an opportunity for people to meet and share their work and experiences. Heritage Lottery Fund North East will be at the event to talk about the range of First World War projects being carried out across the region, and we are delighted to welcome the Worker’s Educational Association to showcase their own project researching the WEA in the North East during the First World War.As well as these talks and the networking opportunities throughout the day, we are also offering the chance to take part in an HLF Funding Application workshop for the development of future projects. 

You can download a programme for the day here.

Attendance at the event (including lunch and refreshments) is free of charge, but places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. To reserve a place at this event, please email: fww@ncl.ac.uk by Wednesday 13 July 2016. 

The event is being hosted by the Living Legacies First World War Centenary Engagement Centre, in collaboration with the Heritage Lottery Fund, with support from Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal, and Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute. Living Legacies is one of five FWW Engagement Centres funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to connect academic and community researchers. Further details of all the Centres can be found here. 

 

Newcastle and Archangel in the First World War

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Public Lecture – 6pm, Thursday 31 March @ The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Rd, Newcastle. 

In this lecture, Professor David Saunders of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University discusses the construction of icebreakers for Russia on the Tyne, the work they did in Russia, and what happened to them in the Russian Revolution, Civil War, and in the First World War. The talk is linked to the HLF-funded project Reflections of Newcastle, 1914-1918, and is free and open to all, but you may need to contact the Lit & Phil to reserve a place by calling: (0191) 232 0192.

Major Miss Bell: Gertrude Bell and the First World War

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Exhibition @ Level 2, Newcastle University Robinson Library, November 2015 – January 2016. 

Cartographer, archaeologist, interpreter, photographer, Gertrude Bell (born 1868 at Washington New Hall, County Durham) is perhaps best known as a central figure in British political movements in the Middle East during the early twentieth century. Appointed the appointed Oriental Secretary in 1917, her expertise in the geography of the Middle East led to her involvement in the Cairo Conference of 1921, in which she played a central role in the formation of Iraq. Often overlooked, however, is the range and extent of the work Bell undertook during the First World War, which took her from Boulogne to Baghdad. Curated by Dr Emma Short (School of English, Newcastle University & Living Legacies 1914-1918), this exhibition of material from the Gertrude Bell Papers, held in Newcastle University Robinson Library Special Collections, explores the impact of the First World War on Bell’s life and legacy.

The exhibition can be seen on Level 2 of the Robinson Library, Newcastle University, and all are welcome to visit. Staff on reception will be happy to admit on request visitors who wish to view the exhibition without a Newcastle University Library card.

Dr Short will be speaking on Gertrude Bell and the First World War at the Robinson Library to Friends of the Robinson Library at 6pm on 1 December 2015, and at the Newcastle City Library (as part of the Gender Research Group Evening Lecture Series) at 5.15pm on Wednesday 13 January 2016.  

Photograph courtesy of Newcastle University Robinson Library Special Collections. 

Your Community in the First World War: A Roadshow

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10 September 2015 @ Lindisfarne Room, Newcastle University

How did the First World War affect your community? Do you know where the people named on your war memorial fought and died? What was life like for those who went away to fight? What happened to those who stayed at home? Did the First World War change things for women? Industry? Social welfare? What was its global impact and how did colonial troops experience it?

We invite you to explore your community’s connection with the First World War and meet up with others already doing so. This event will bring together community groups and other organisations who are working on projects around the heritage of the First World War, or who are interested in developing such a project. There will be an opportunity to share experiences, explore possible sources of funding (especially the Heritage Lottery Fund), exchange ideas, and learn about free support and resources, including how and where you can showcase your findings online.

This roadshow is co-hosted by the five First World War engagement centres funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Each centre represents a network of academic support and has various areas of expertise regarding First World War research. You can access their support when developing your own projects. For further information on these centres see here: http://ww1engage.org.uk

We will also be offering an opportunity at this event to learn how to digitise, record and preserve your community’s stories and memorabilia. The availability of this opportunity will be based on demand, so if you are interested in taking part in this digitisation workshop, please register for this when booking the event. You will be asked to submit a short statement of what materials (photographs, letters, diaries etc.) you would like to have digitised and how it would benefit you and/or your community group.

Places at this event is free, but limited, so book early to ensure a place.
Go to: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/first-world-war-engagement-centres-8220847914

For more information or to book a place on a digitisation workshop after booking an event contact Dr Sam Carroll, Community Heritage Researcher, Gateways to the First World War. Email: S.J.Carroll@kent.ac.uk

Download the flyer for the Roadshow here.

Women & the First World War (1910-1930) – Call for Papers

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17 September 2015 @ Newcastle University

Keynote Address: Professor Alison Fell (Leeds), ‘Back to the Front: French and British Female Veteran Groups in the 1920s’

This interdisciplinary symposium will showcase research on any aspect of women’s history in relation to the First World War. We welcome papers on the role and place of girls and women both during the war and also in the years leading up to the outbreak of hostilities and in the decade after. For example, how did literature for girls before the war prepare children for war? How were women involved in pacifist groups? What kinds of work did women do during the war? How were women and girls involved in memorialisation activities? What is the relationship between spiritualism, war and gender politics? Do new transnational paradigms complicate our understanding of women and war? What role did women play in journalism during the war? These are indicative questions only – the symposium is intended to share and develop research on women and the First World War. Papers from a range of fields – including Literature, History, Archaeology, Geography, Politics, Film and Media, Modern Languages, History of Medicine, and Law – are encouraged.

Please send abstracts of 150 words for 20-minute papers to fww@ncl.ac.uk by 15 July 2015.

This event is supported by the North East Research Forum for First World War Studies, the Living Legacies 1914-18 Engagement Centre, the Gender Research Group (Newcastle) and the Military, War & Security Research Group (Newcastle).

Conference Organisers: Stacy Gillis & Emma Short

Download a PDF version of the Call for Papers here.

Durham University Officers’ Training Corps, Stobs camp, 1914, Durham University Library Special Collections, Ref: MIA 1/307

Universities at War – Lottery grant awarded to mark First World War Centenary

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A new project to tell the lost stories of Newcastle and Durham University staff and students who fell during the First World War has been awarded £7,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Both universities invite anyone interested in learning more about the project to an open event at Newcastle University’s Robinson Library at 6pm on 25 June.

The Universities have received the Lottery grant for their project ‘Universities at War: Chronicling the Fallen of Newcastle and Durham Universities (1914 – 1918)’. Awarded through HLF’s First World War: then and now programme, the project focuses on expanding on the work of staff and students from both universities to tell the stories of their fallen alumni by working with volunteers across the region and beyond.

With help from heritage professionals, the information gathered by volunteers will be digitally recorded in an online memory book which everyone can access and contribute to. Research into these important stories will be promoted through public events and an exhibition in 2017 showcasing the work of the volunteers. Both Universities will also work with local schools to help young people understand the local impact of the conflict and develop the skills to research their own memorials.

Commenting on the award, Newcastle University Archivist Ian Johnson said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund to engage the public in the important aim to make these fallen more than just names on a memorial. As many of these fallen were local and the commemorations have sparked everyone’s interest nationally, we know the experts are in our communities and we want them to get in touch to make this a success through credited contributions.”

Ivor Crowther, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North East, said: “The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching and shaping every corner of the UK and beyond. In this Centenary year we’re pleased to fund this project which will provide a truly personal link to the conflict and ensure the stories of Durham and Newcastle alumni are heard and remembered.”

The work done so far is available to view at http://memorial.ncl.ac.uk/ and https://www.dur.ac.uk/library/asc/roll/. Volunteers are also welcome to get in touch through contact details available on these sites.

Image: Durham University Officers’ Training Corps, Stobs camp, 1914, Durham University Library Special Collections, Ref: MIA 1/307.

First World War Symposia at Newcastle University

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On 15 and 16 April 2015, Newcastle University hosted two very successful events showcasing First World War research, which were attended by over 70 people across the two days. The events were presented in association with Living Legacies and the AHRC, and were both generously supported by the McCord Centre for Historic and Cultural Landscape at Newcastle University, alongside the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal and the Newcastle Humanities Research Institute.

The first of the two events, on Wednesday 15 April, was a First World War Postgraduate Symposium, at which postgraduate researchers from 9 institutions across the UK presented their research on the First World War and its legacies. The speakers covered a wide range of fascinating topics, from literary and artistic responses to the First World War to the role of women in both war and pacifism, and from military technologies and empire to activities on the home front. The final programme for the event can be found here.

The second event, which took place on Thursday 16 April, was entitled ‘Connecting Communities Through Researching First World War Heritage’, and brought together community and academic researchers working on projects during the First World War centenary commemorations in the North East of England. The projects showcased at the event approached the war from a range of different perspectives, and through a variety of different methods. These included the artistic and creative responses of Applied Comics Etc. (Newcastle University), Wor War (YMCA North Tyneside), Wor Women on the Home Front (Tyneside Women’s Health & Curiosity Creative), and Decoded 1914-18 (Newcastle Institute for Creative Arts Practice and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums). Alongside these, several projects focused on using digital technologies to either map the impact of the First World War on the region, to digitize and preserve archival materials, to investigate and record the lives of those featured on local war memorials, and to preserve the memorials themselves. These projects included: Durham at War (Durham County Council & Record Office); Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project; Northumberland at War (Northumberland Archives); The Universities at War and the Armstrong Memory Book (Dr Jane Webster of Newcastle University); and CARE of War Memorials in North East England (Dr Myra Giesen of Newcastle University). In addition to detailed and informative presentations from representatives of these projects, the event also featured a presentation from Dr Keith Lilley and Dr Paul Ell, PI and Co-I of Living Legacies at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as a stimulating keynote on non-invasive landscape archaeology of the First World War in Flanders from Professor Veerle van Eetvelde of the University of Ghent. The event concluded with a lively roundtable discussion in which community and academic researchers developed initial plans for future collaborations. The final programme for this event is available here.

First World War – Postgraduate Symposium

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15 April 2015 @ Research Beehive, Newcastle University

The centenary of the First World War has prompted an immense amount of research investigating the events of 1914-1918 and the legacies of the War. Postgraduate research in particular is at the forefront of new and exciting directions in First World War studies. This interdisciplinary symposium showcases some of the fascinating work being undertaken by postgraduate researchers  on the First World War and its aftermath.

This event contributes to the AHRC-funded Living Legacies 1914-18 Engagement Centre programme, in which Newcastle University is a partner organisation. The Newcastle event is supported by the McCord Centre for Historic and Cultural Landscape (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/mccordcentre/), and the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/socialrenewal/).

Please find a draft programme for the event here: First World War PG Symposium – Draft Programme. Attendance at this event is free, and a complementary lunch will be provided. Please register here by Tuesday 7 April 2015.

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

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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.