JISC

Oxford University is launching a web site to allow members of the public to submit digital photographs or transcripts of items they personally hold which are related to the First World War. This ‘Great War Archive’ site will run for three months and aims to collect together artefacts, letters, diaries, poems, stories that have been passed down from generation to generation reflecting the true experience of the First World War but which are now in danger of being lost.

This resource, which will subsequently be made available free of charge on the web from Armistice Day this year (November 11th), is being collected as part of Oxford University’s First World War Poetry Digital Archive project. The JISC-funded project is based on the 10-year old award winning web site which digitised the poetical manuscripts, letters, and war records of Wilfred Owen.

The project is also digitising the manuscripts of the war poems of Isaac Rosenberg, Edward Thomas, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and others. The site also contains interviews with Ian Hislop, Max Arthur, and podcasts of talks on WW1 literature and will on completion contain a wealth of freely available teaching material.

Project Director Dr Stuart Lee said: ‘Some of the items may be in a fragile condition after ninety years, and are at risk of being lost forever. However insignificant, each of 'JISC is delighted to have funded a project that contributes to our understanding of such an important period in the UK's history.’these personal items has a part to play in helping today's generation to understand what World War I meant to ordinary people: the soldiers, their families and the workers back in Britain who kept the country going.’

JISC programme manager Paola Marchionni said: ‘This project is remarkable for many reasons, but its attempts to engage with the public represent a clear signal that key heritage resources should be made as widely available as possible. JISC is delighted to have funded a project that contributes so much to our understanding of such an important period in the UK’s history.’

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive project is part of a £22m digitisation programme being managed by JISC with funding from HEFCE to make available a wide range of heritage and scholarly resources of national importance, including sound, moving pictures, newspapers, maps, images, cartoons, census data, journals and parliamentary papers for use by the UK further and higher education communities.     

 This image was taken from an autograph book that belonged to Beryl Ellis who was a nurse at Moor Green Lane Hospital, Birmingham, during the First World War.  The autograph book contains poems and sketches by the soldiers she was nursing. This was submitted by Mick Calcott, Acocks Green, Birmingham.

This image, as well as the image at the top of the page, are images from a sketch book belonging to Percy Matthews. Matthews trained at the Ramsgate School of Art and during World War I he served on the Western Front as a Private in the Kentish Buffs, and later in Salonika as a Lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment. It was in Salonika that he produced his remarkable sketches of scenes and characters from military and civilian life. These images were submitted to the GWA by Elizabeth Masterman on behalf of Peter, his son. These sketches have now been donated to the Imperial War Museum in 2007, where they are currently undergoing conservation.

For further information on The Great War Archive 

For further information on the JISC Digitisation programme

Contact: Stuart Lee on 01865 283403

The project is being supported by the Imperial War Museum, the Bodleian Library, the British Library, the National Library of Wales, the National Archives, the University of Cardiff, the University of Buffalo, McMaster University, the Berg Collection (New York), ProQuest, and many others.