ABSTRACT
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) was established during the ‘Great War’ to record and represent the efforts of Britain and its Empire, remaining one of the most tangible outcomes of the conflict still with us today. The institution flourished as a repository filled with objects intended to convey and evoke the human experience of this First World War. With its exhibitions symptomatic of the relationship between collections and public, the museum aspired to keep the ‘War to end War’, as it was known then, fresh in public memory. One hundred years on, IWM London opened new First World War galleries in July 2014. This was a culmination of exhibition-making efforts over a four-year period – the first time the organisation had delivered a major exhibition on the conflict since it fell from living memory.
Insight into the processes of creating and developing these displays forms the basis of this chapter. It examines some of the guiding philosophies, politics and drivers, before considering how their interpretational strategy relates back to the museum’s original purpose – accordingly exploring broader issues about the representation and portrayal of conflict within the space of a national museum. In ruminating upon the broader effect of generational shifts and the institution’s contemporary role, this chapter aims to illuminate both the possibilities, and difficulties, of displaying this ‘War to end War’. 1
