The Imperial War Museum, London: A Century of Reinvention

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The project is designed to redress the fact that there is as yet no substantial history of the Imperial War Museum. Founded in 1917 to commemorate the First World War, the museum has developed in response to a century of continual warfare. It is now an institution of international importance, with an acclaimed exhibitions programme and superb collections, including one of the best collections of twentieth-century British art in the world. As it prepares to mark its centenary, and to initiate a programme of new displays at the London site, the lack of proper research into its history has become a serious handicap. The studentship will answer this pressing need for an extended analysis of display practice and policy at the London museum over the past hundred years. The project takes as its starting point the contrast between the apparent solidity of the institution (housed magnificently in the former premises of Bedlam) and the process of constant change which it has undergone. It invites the student to pursue various research questions concerning exhibiting at the museum, which may include but are not limited to: curatorial responses to successive conflicts and to shifting attitudes to war; the changing use of space at the London museum in its various locations; how the museum has treated the eclectic nature of its collection, which combines military artefacts and fine-art displays; and the museum's place among the growing number and sophistication of memorials and war museums internationally. The specific lines of enquiry and eventual argument will emerge from the student's archival researches.The student will work closely with museum staff to develop a project which will feed in to the museum's ongoing review of its displays. S/he will contribute to the gathering of material for an oral history of the museum and to a new online centenary exhibition, thereby helping to create, as well as to analyse, the museum's history and collections. The thematic nature of the museum's collection makes it ideal for cross-disciplinary analysis. The project will benefit academics working in a number of fields, including museum studies, war studies and the history of art, all of which are research strengths at the University of Bristol. The writing up and dissemination of the project will function at several levels, including the online exhibition and a publication for general readership, in addition to the thesis and resulting academic publications.