Broad Street
University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3BG
UK
The Bodleian Library’s exhibition, ‘The Great War: Personal Stories from Downing Street to the Trenches,’ opens 18 June. Letters and diaries of politicians, soldiers and civilians, all connected with Oxford University, convey contemporary experiences of the Great War from the outbreak of war in 1914 to the battle of the Somme in 1916.
The exhibition at the Bodleian is part of a series taking place this year in three archives that preserve memories of World War I. In Germany, ‘Literatur und Krieg’ at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach, and in France, ‘1914, La Mort des Poètes’ at the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg, also examine how war is understood through surviving documents.
Curators from all three archives will join a panel discussion in Oxford on 18 June examining the choices and discoveries made in selecting material to tell stories of World War I.