IWM Blog

  • Ten Sandhurst officer cadets, pictured in 1915
    Copyright Dr Frances Hurd
    Blog: Personal Stories

    They also served - remembering obscure lives from the First World War

    The chance find of an evocative photograph launched me on a quest to trace the lives and deaths of ten men and their family before and after the war. Of these ten Sandhurst officer cadets, three won the Military Cross and one became a general. Incidentally, all my subjects volunteered during the first two weeks of September 1914. However, like thousands of other volunteers, some in this group became casualties before they made any contribution to the war. There were also those who for various reasons sought a way out. Here are some of their stories.
  • Blog: First World War

    Mapping the Centenary – Project Case Studies (Part Two)

    Our third Case Study project is ‘BAME Seafarers in the First World War’, which was coordinated by the University of Portsmouth.
  • The 'Peace Field Project', National Children's Football Alliance.
    Blog: First World War

    Mapping the Centenary – Project Case Studies (Part One)

    In this first of a two-part blog, we hear from commemorative projects that have submitted listings for our digital portal, Mapping the Centenary. We invited contributors to reveal greater detail about the topics of their respective activities, what they sought to achieve, as well as to share a few ‘best practice’ tips based on their experiences.
  • Tomoe Gozen in the Battle of Awazu, by Utagawa Yoshikazu.
    Blog: Art And Design

    Akabane Swords and the end of the Second World War

    What comes to mind when you think of art looted during wartime? Or the kind of weapons used during the Second World War? In both cases, swords are probably not your first choice.
  • War-time traffic on the River Thames: River Police at Waterloo Bridge during the Battle of Britain. Oil painting by John Edgar Platt.
    © IWM ART LD 2642
    Blog: Art And Design

    Researching the paintings of London during the Blitz owned by the IWM

    Wartime London in Paintings tells the story of the artists commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) who lived and worked in London and how they interacted with the Committee to produce a body of work which today gives us a fresh insight into the city’s wartime history.
  • A still from camera gun film shows tracer ammunition from a Spitfire of No. 609 Squadron, hitting a Heinkel He 111 which was part of the formation that attacked Filton on 25 September 1940.
    © IWM CH 1823
    Blog: Home Front

    Remembering Vivian Roberts, 80 years on

    The lockdown and coronavirus restrictions in the spring of 2020 brought about many changes in lifestyles. As I could no longer travel in Britain and Europe, I resolved to walk five miles each day in and around Rogerstone.
  • Blog: Second World War

    During the Battle of France, which takes place from May 10 to June 25, 1940, the German army wedges the British Expeditionary Force and parts of the French army into the Channel area at the northern coast of France. The Germans’ rapid invasion of France is the result of a “sickle-cut attack”, from the north through Holland, coordinated with thrusts through the weak points of the Maginot Line in Belgium, and advancing through the Ardennes up to northern France.
  • Astley Park Memorial, Chorley
    Blog: First World War

    Mapping the Centenary - An Introduction

    Over a four year period, Britain and countries around the world commemorated the centenary of the First World War. What took placebetween August 2014 and November 2018 evidenced the enduring impacts and aftermath of this twentieth century conflict upon communities, regions and nations.
  • Ms Emiko Okada holding a map of Hiroshima, showing the burned out area in red. Photo taken by her grand-daughter Yuki Tominaga.
    Blog: Second World War

    Hibakusha: Interviews with women survivors in Hiroshima & Nagasaki

    On 6 August 1945, Allied forces dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The detonation of these weapons killed thousands of people instantly and many more continued to suffer the effects of radiation poisoning. In this post, we share the testimonies of three women who were directly affected by the dropping of the atomic bombs, as interviewed by artist Lee Karen Stow.
  • Blog: Second World War

    Tower Hill in the Blitz

    From 7th September 1940, London was bombed by the German Air Force for 57 consecutive nights. The resulting devastation altered the landscape and the character of the city beyond all recognition. Over 40,000 people were killed; churches, houses, shops and offices were reduced to rubble.
  • Blog: Second World War

    ​​​​​​​Visual conversations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    At 8:15am on the morning of August 6 2015, in blistering heat I stood with young and old at ground zero in Hiroshima, Japan. It was a bewildering, searing moment of collective remembrance, melting in the buzz of cicadas and hum of birdsong. I photographed the sky because it was clear, blue and beautiful, as it apparently was that morning in 1945 when the atomic bomb ‘Little Boy’ was dropped from a United States military plane. Three days later, on August 9, ‘Fat Man’ fell on Nagasaki.
  • Blog: Conservation

    ‘Scent Related Campaign’: Ethical decision making behind the conservation of smell

    The conservation work discussed in this blog was carried out for the Transforming IWM London Project (TIWML) – the installation of new Second World War and Holocaust Galleries opening in 2021, along with new learning spaces.