Tag Archives: World War I

Primary sources and the ANZACS

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WWI propoganda

The commemoration of the centenary of the Gallipoli Landing during World War I has stimulated an explosion in the digital content available online. Photos from family and institution collections contribute to a comprehensive overview of the period from the images on the battlefront through to the homeland and everyday life.

These images make possible a range of rich learning activities that can extend a student’s understanding of the experience of individuals and expose them to resources to explore further in their own time, for example:

  1. Use Ergo, State Library of Victoria – Australia and World War I to study topics such as enlistment, conscription, the homefront and propaganda supported by primary source artefacts including diaries.
  2. Document analysis worksheets designed and developed by the education staff of the [US] National Archives and Records Administration are an excellent resource for use with primary sources. These worksheets are not new and have been refined over time. They’re in a convenient .pdf format for use either online or as printed hardcopies. Worksheets are available for the analysis of a printed document, photograph, cartoon, poster, map, artefact, motion picture and sound recording. Highly recommended.
  3. It’s not news to any teacher to say that students love Google Images. A lesson in the Advanced Search function of Google Images is an opportunity to experiment with various search terms; with learning how to separate World War I from World War II images; how to isolate propaganda images; locate images relating to women; find images of a particular colour or from the region ‘Australia’ only. Use with Google Search Education lesson plans to enhance your own search skills and those of your students.
  4. The number of public institutions uploading resources to Flickr: The Commons has grown steadily over the years. As Creative Commons resources, students have a wealth of resources to work with. Once again, using a range of key terms such as ANZAC, Gallipoli, World War I, WWI, students can become familiar with this constantly developing database of original images.

This centenary year can be a launching point that introduces students to an authentic range of resources they can revisit time and time again……. now they know they exist.  Explore!

World War I through other eyes

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Set aside some time to explore the European Film Gateway which provides access to hundreds of thousands of historical documents preserved in European film archives ranging from photos, posters, and censorship documents to rare feature and documentary films and newsreels.

The virtual exhibition European Film and the First World War is particularly recommended as representing a unique European view of history through another set of eyes.  Organised under the headings:

* At the front
* Film and propaganda
* Science and technical innovation
* Suffering in and after the war
* Beyond the trenches
* Neutral countries
* Commemorating the war

This site is ideally suited to senior students who have an understanding of the complexity of World War I and are seeking to gain an understanding from the Axis point of view in addition to the British Allies.

It explains the purpose of film and propaganda for instance, and provides examples:

To keep spirits and morale high during the hardships of war, film was discovered as an ideal medium to influence the masses. All nations fighting in the war used moving images to influence their own people.

In the video, ‘For the Empire’:

Britannia posed beside the figure of ‘Belgium’ and her dead children. What are others doing for us? A soldier sets out for war leaving his parents in a country cottage. Muddy conditions on the Western Front are shown. A letter from the front pleads for God’s sake don’t let us down.

European Film and the First World War addresses the Australian History curriculum by:

  • providing opportunities for students to engage in the analysis, interpretation and evaluation of historical sources,
  • assisting students to progressively engage in higher order tasks, for example, building an historical argument using evidence.

Through exploring and sharing their knowledge, students will expand their understanding of the World War I and view it with a more global perspective.  Recommended.

ANZAC commemoration – family stories

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Over the past week we have witnessed news reports of Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and war service veterans attending the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy.  The largest seaborne invasion in history.   Our attention has been drawn to the veterans as they relive and recount the impact of the war years on their lives.  Over the next year, as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of Anzac, we will be encouraged to reflect on the efforts of all Australians during wartime.  We are fortunate to have access to a growing range of quality online resources that document the people and events involved in defending Australia.  This commemoration is an opportunity to harness the creativity of our students and involve them in revisiting, and perhaps even discovering, their own family history.  These World War I sites are some that will adapt well to the classroom.

100 Years of Anzac is the official website of the Australian Anzac Centenary commemorations.  The Centenary is planned to be a time remember not only the original Anzacs who served at Gallipoli and the Western Front, but commemorate more than a century of service by all Australian servicemen and women.  It encompasses all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations in which Australians have been involved. This site includes links to many relevant resources.

Gallipoli and the Anzacs  Created by the Australian Government, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, this site contains a wealth of information about Gallipoli, the landing, individual accounts, photographs, diaries and the Gallipoli Peninsula today.  Ideas and resources available support the study of Gallipoli for many different approaches.

World War I Diaries – Our Stories, Your Stories is a commemorative project of State Library of NSW. Through 2014 to 2019 the Library will take its collections on site, on tour and online to tell our stories, and to listen to your stories. At the heart of the commemorations is the collection which includes some 1140 volumes of diaries written by over 500 servicemen and women, supported by newspapers, photographs, maps and ephemera.   Diaries will be completely digitised, transcribed and available on line. The library is inviting the public to contribute their own stories.  See also World War I and Australia Research Guide

Researching Australians in World War I Research Guide  developed by staff of the State Library of Victoria focuses on Australians serving in World War 1. It also includes some information relevant to Great Britain, Commonwealth nations and other combatant nations. Included is a section on nurses and women’s war occupations.  This guide is a digital roadmap for any war service researcher old or young.  It provides links into library records and collections with tips on how to construct a successful search and where to look for particular information.

Mapping our ANZACs by the National Archives of Australia has been available for a number of years and continues to grow in richness as people build their own scrapbooks and add family photographs.  It provides an accessible interface for searching veteran war records.  The interactivity of this site is an ideal teaching opportunity as students trace their own family members and then potentially, contribute to the collection.  It’s a site that can stimulate family conversations and potentially lead to the revealing of family stories.  A reminder about War & Identity- Education, a website of the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee.  This site has also been available for some time but the interactive resources are well worth a reminder as schools introduce 1:1 computing devices.  

Finally, Lives of the First World War – is a UK First World War Centenary project.   Presently in its infancy, the Imperial War Museum is creating this project to bring material from museums, libraries, archives and family collections from across the world together in one place.  They hope to inspire people of all ages to explore, reveal and share the life stories of those who served in uniform and worked on the home front.  Australians are invited to contribute their family stories to help build this Commonwealth resource.

This is not an exhaustive list of Australian World War I resources.  It is a sample of the material available for students to develop their own content, contribute their own stories and develop a greater understanding of their place in history.

Do you have a resource to recommend?  Please share your knowledge via the comments option.

 

World War I centenary resources

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With the centenary of the First World War set to begin in July this year, many institutions will be launching new sites, programs and resources for schools. But there’s already a lot out there to explore.

Locally, the Australian War Memorial is a key institution when looking at the Great War and the history of ANZAC. They also have an education blog which includes mystery objects, details of new resources, acquisitions and personal stories from the collection. The ANZAC Centenary website from the Victorian Government and the existing ANZAC website from the Department of Veteran Affairs are also great resources looking at the Australian experience of WWI.

For a different perspective, the BBC’s Schools WWI site is a wonderful resource to explore Britain’s involvement and includes relevant media from their archive. The British Library’s WWI site has over 500 primary sources and articles from experts and academics looking at what life was like at the time. The British Library is also a contributor to the Eurpeana 1914-1918 site which provides collection materials, commentary and perspectives from different collections all over Europe. The National Archives UK WWI website is also a beautiful resource including personal diaries and an extensive collection of digitised material.

The American broadcaster PBS also has an interesting website from their documentary series The Great War  and the Shaping of the 20th Century.

These resources are just a taste of what is currently available and many more resources, digitising projects, programs and events are likely to begin mid 2014.