IWM Blog

  • Words Line Time alongside a drawing of a cog
    © Mayas Dirar
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    Line Time

    Guest authors: Freedom Women Collective, 6 March 2025
    In this post, we learn about a new project from the Freedom Women Collective - female artists who survived war, conflict and forced displacement, and resettled as refugees to Hull and East Yorkshire.
  • six young women standing in front of a historic building, featuring an image of a woman with open hands
    © Nerve Centre
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    Celebrating International Women’s Day: IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund

    Charlotte Pearce, Partnerships Manager, 4 March 2025
    This International Women’s Day, we are celebrating some of the inspirational women involved in the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund programme. With over 20 art commissions around the UK, the Legacy Fund represents a diverse range of perspectives on conflict, expressed through a rich variety of artforms.
  • Three brass instruments
    Unicorn Preservation Society
    Blog: First World War

    When the Brazen Bands Shall Play: A Reflection on Legacy and Community

    Guest Author: Matthew Moran, Executive Director, HMS Unicorn, 12 February 2025
    Commissioned as part of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, When the Brazen Bands Shall Play is an eight movement musical work by UK composer Michael Betteridge. Performed by brass musicians and a narrator, it commemorates and celebrates HMS Unicorn’s role as a training ship in the First World War. Matthew Moran, Executive Director of HMS Unicorn, shares his reflections on this project.
  • Black and white photo of around 50 women and children
    From the family collection of Lee Karen Stow
    Blog: Women's experiences

    Visual Traces

    Guest author: Dr Lee Karen Stow, Visual Artist & Researcher, 31 January 2025
    In her final blog post, Dr Lee Karen Stow continues the story of her grandmother, Olive May Jordan (nee Bertholini). It forms part of Lee's work Visual Traces, a visual narrative exploring the wartime experiences of civilian, working-class women in her family and birthplace of Hull through the traces they left behind.
  • Women factory workers sitting at benches
    Courtesy of Reckitt Heritage Archive, Hull
    Blog: First World War

    The Canister Girls

    Guest author: Dr Lee Karen Stow, Visual Artist & Researcher, 6 January 2025
    Dr Lee Karen Stow continues the story of her late-grandmother, Olive May Bertholini, through traces left behind. In this third blog post, Lee shares how a canister of Brasso and inky scrawls on a Census, helped her to uncover more of Olive May's life during the First World War.
  • A selection of Cold War objects - a camouflage suit, a model of a house, an instrument with a dial, a medal, a Protect and Survive booklet and a badge saying Nuclear Power? No Thanks
    Courtesy of National Museums Scotland
    Blog: Cold War

    The Cold War in Museums: A Toolkit for Professionals and Volunteers

    Guest Author: Dr Sarah Harper, Cold War Research Fellow, National Museums Scotland, 6 January 2025
    What is a Cold War object? How have museums collected and interpreted the Cold War in the past and how might they in future? How do audiences respond to the Cold War in museum displays? Dr Sarah Harper introduces a new toolkit on collecting, interpreting, and displaying Cold War history, designed for professionals and volunteers in museum and heritage settings of all sizes.
  • Friends, Foes and Good Companions: Grimsby town trail
    Our Big Picture
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    Friends, Foes and Good Companions

    Our Big Picture, 5 December 2024
    The Cod Wars, a series of confrontations between Iceland and the UK overfishing rights in the North Atlantic, have been a topic of discussion for decades. However, the impact of this conflict on the fishing industry and the communities involved has often been overlooked. That's where the "Friends, Foes and Good Companions" exhibition comes in.
  • The Waiting Gardens of the North by artist Michael Rakowitz
    Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    The Waiting Gardens of the North by artist Michael Rakowitz

    Gina Barron, Baltic Volunteer, 4 December 2024
    An exhibition forming part of the IWM 14-18 Now Legacy Fund project, dealing with conflict and the displacement of people. Gina talks about her experience as a volunteer on the project.
  • Chila Kumari Singh Burman, The Shining Lights of Service at the Royal Pavilion
    Photograph by Brighton Pictures
    Blog: Art

    The Shining Lights of Service at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton

    Nicola Coleby, Creative Programme Manager, Brighton & Hove Museums, 13 November 2024
    Opening on Remembrance Day in 2023, artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE created The Shining Lights of Service, a unique, multi-coloured light installation commemorating the Indian Hospital at the Royal Pavilion during the First World War. It was an IWM14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commission in partnership with Brighton & Hove Museums and in collaboration with Believe in Me CIC.
  • View over moorland
    © Mhairi Sutherland
    Blog: Art

    The Tower, the Light and the Line

    Guest author: Mhairi Sutherland, Visual Artist, 8 November 2024
    Visual Artist Mhairi Sutherland shares details of her artwork BASE, part of 'Mapping Monuments' project. The project and Mhairi's artist residency is an exploration of the origins of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (1824), continuing her ongoing artistic research of the militarised landscapes of the north coast of Ireland.
  • Bedroom with damaged wall and an iron frame bed
    Photograph by Turner and Drinkwater. Courtesy of Maritime Museum: Hull Museums and Gallery
    Blog: First World War

    Where Were You?

    Guest author: Dr Lee Karen Stow, Visual Artist & Researcher, 7 November 2024
    Dr Lee Karen Stow presents the second photo essay in Visual Traces, a visual narrative exploring the wartime experiences of civilian, working-class women in her family and birthplace of Hull through the traces they left behind.
  • Green V2 rocket bomb on display in the atrium of IWM London
    IWM
    Blog: Objects

    80 years on: the V weapon attacks on Britain

    Zoe Melabianaki and Dominic Hewett, Research Support Librarians, 10 October 2024
    The Collections Access and Research Team will be participating in tenth annual History Day held at Senate House, London on Tuesday 5th November 2024. History Day is a day for researchers, students, and enthusiasts to explore the collections of libraries, museums and archives from all over UK. The theme for this year’s event is anniversaries and this blog will look at how V1 and V2 rockets were used against British soil eighty years ago and their impact on local communities and ordinary people’s lives.

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