JISC

The project will work with the families of those in Wales who fought, or otherwise served, in the First World War in order to collect and make available online the range of artefacts that are held in private hands. 

Visit the project website (English language)  (Welsh language)

Overview

There is a wealth of material – letters, diaries, photographs and other memorabilia – that has been treasured by families for over 90 years: material that has value to them as a commemoration of their loved ones’ contribution to the war effort, and that has an enormous potential value to historians interested in understanding aspects of the impact of the war upon Wales.

The project will set up an online portal that will allow the public to share their families’ memories by contributing images of
material that is in their possession, together with as much contextual information as they have about the originators of the material, to create a valuable and lasting resource for all to study.

Aims and Objectives

• Provide a web-based interface to enable members of the public to submit information / items related to Welsh involvement in the Great War
• Organise a number of ‘roadshows’ around Wales
• Work with community-based organisations to expand the reach of the project and to maximise the potential to gather material
• Organise a programme of public engagement activities
• Commission and make available articles to contextualize the material gathered by the project
• Involve schools in the project
• Publicise the project via national and local media

Outputs

The project will result in a number of outputs, including:

• Online Database A community-driven database (available via The People’s Collection), consisting of images of thousands of personal artefacts and other items submitted by members of the public, that is searchable and accessible to both academic and non-specialist audiences
• Roadshows
• Training morkshops
• Contextualizing material A series of short essays (500-1500 words) will be commissioned and published on the project’s website
• An essay- writing / digital storytelling competition for schools
• Regular updates to public  Via the website
• Contact with JISC / RunCoCo / NCCPE  To share best practice