Tuesday 2 August 2016

Home Front exhibition

This morning, I was delighted to attend the launch at Lochee Library of a new touring exhibition created by the Great War Dundee partnership. 

“Home Front” focuses on what life was like in Dundee during the First World War.  

The exhibition, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has been researched by Linda Nicoll (Friends of Dundee City Archives) and Matthew Jarron (University of Dundee Museum Services) and features various aspects of wartime life in Dundee, including:

•         The effect of the war on the jute industry and the establishment of munitions factories
•         Fundraising and recruitment activities
•         Theatre, music and art in wartime
•         Dundee’s seaplane and submarine bases
•         The Serbian refugee children educated at Harris Academy and the High School
•         The country’s only contested by-election in wartime - Churchill v Scrymgeour in 1917
•         Dundee’s conscientious objectors and rent strikers

It is an absolutely excellent exhibition and gives a fascinating glimpse into the affect of the Great War upon the people of Dundee and the city.     The exhibition will be on show at Lochee Library for four weeks before touring round other libraries and venues elsewhere in the city.   I am pleased to say that Blackness Library is likely to feature in the exhibition’s tour.

A couple of photos from this morning :
Matthew Jarron gives an overview of the exhibition to the launch attendees
Part of the exhibition