ABSTRACT
In Britain the First World War is entrenched in popular culture as a futile tragedy in which incompetent leadership led to countless, purposeless deaths. 1 This perception of the war is in marked contrast to the entrenched view in both Canada and Australia – culturally similar British settler societies that fought as part of the British Imperial forces during the war. In Australia and Canada, the war is popularly remembered as, while tragic, the site of the birth of the modern nation. 2 This chapter will discuss one way in which this divergent view began to be produced, by briefly sketching how Canadian and Australian officials in London, both independently and in interactions with British government and military bodies, collected and exhibited war representations and material. In particular, this chapter will focus on the construction, promotion and consumption of Canadian and Australian official war photograph exhibitions and how these exhibitions capitalised on popular desires for an ‘authentic’ connection with the experience of war. Curators used this desire to connect with the front line experience to emotively impress upon audiences the heroism and grit of Australian and Canadian soldiers when faced with the dramatic ‘reality’ of war. Thus, exhibitions stressed the significance of the dominions’ role in the war, and by implication, buttressed Australian and Canadian claims to a greater stature within the empire.
