A Century of Reinvention: Display policy and practice at the Imperial War Museum, London 1917-c.2017

This AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) has funded a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the Imperial War Museum, London (IWM). The studentship was awarded to Alys Cundy, and is supervised by Grace Brockington and Tim Cole at Bristol, and by Suzanne Bardgett (Head of Research) and Roger Tolson (Principal Curator Masterplanning) at IWM.

IWM was founded in 1917 to record and commemorate the First World War as it was still going on.  For nearly a century since, the museum has expanded to represent the many conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth. This CDA project charts the development of display policy and practice within the museum’s permanent London displays, in response to the changing nature of warfare and shifting public perceptions of conflict.

IWM London is undergoing a major scheme of redevelopment entitled Regeneration, which has entailed the creation of new First World War galleries in time for the 2014 centenary; a redesigned atrium and large object display; and a rethinking of display principles throughout the museum as a whole. The findings of the CDA project have been instrumental to the process of redesign. Research into the display history of key objects in the collection has informed their presentation in the new displays, while investigation into past practices has brought an historical perspective to the museum’s future planning. The CDA findings will be integrated into the public programmes around the IWM’s centenary in 2017.