Digitizing The War Illustrated

NoRMMA Receives Heritage Lottery Funding For Digitizing the War Illustrated Project

NoRMMA is very happy to announce that its members have been awarded £8,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to undertake its ‘Digitizing The War Illustrated’ project. (You can find out more about the National Lottery Heritage Fund on its website: https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/).

This allows us to build on Public Engagement NoRMMA carried out between April and June 2017. Over the course of three workshops, we encouraged participants to focus on the representation of women in the World War I weekly magazine, The War Illustrated. First published in August 1914, a short time after war was declared, the magazine provided the British public with text and images about the conflict. It continued to shape the British public’s views until after armistice day in November 1918, with its final issue dated February 1919. (See the Women’s War Work page on the NoRMMA blog here: https://normmanetwork.com/womens-war-work/)

Thanks to the generosity and support of the HLF, and members of the British public who contribute their money to the fund by playing the National Lottery, we are now able to digitize and upload to the internet the University of Kent’s entire run of the publication’s 233 issues. This means that this important slice of British history, at risk of disintegration in its physical form, will be available forever, for all, and for free.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Magazines You can find a blog post listing links to the magazine on the Internet Archive here: https://normmanetwork.com/links-to-the-war-illustrated-on-the-internet-archive/

Research Guide You can access our ‘How to Research Guide’ here: https://normmanetwork.com/how-to-research-guide/

Forum Want to discuss the archive, and other WWI research with others? You can discuss the ‘Digitizing The War Illustrated‘ project by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page. Comments are pre-moderated so please allow time for us to approve your remarks. 

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EVENT DATES AND LOCATIONS

PAST

Parking in Pay and Display car parks on the weekends is FREE

An image from the 27th of April 1918 issue of The War Illustrated

BRIEF OUTLINE OF EVENTS

We held three workshops during June and July 2019 at the University of Kent in Canterbury. During these, we gave volunteers background on the magazine and its history, helped them to familiarise themselves with the online archive, as well as support to plan and complete research projects of their own. Some participants attended more than one workshop. A progress day brought together attendees  from the workshops, and gave them the opportunity to develop their projects. The workshop participants have shared their findings online and at the tea dance-themed launch on the 7th of September.

Those who attended the free launch were treated to interesting talks about the project, an enjoyable lesson themed around music and dances from the time, and a delicious afternoon tea.

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