Imperial War Museum

Last week, we visited the Imperial War Museum to uncover Imperial London through artifacts and the World Wars. 

I would describe my experience of the visit a little unordinary. One of my first experiences in the museum was speaking with an unpaid volunteer, I believe by the name of Graham. He told us about how the museum does not necessarily appreciate his volunteerism because he does not stick to a script. Graham takes pride in that he talks about details that the museum perhaps does not want to portray in their story of Imperial London. I think this represented a theme of London that we uncovered in class: that London took a very unified front during the war. The Royals became involved, normal civilians were either drafted or donated, and children and families experienced bombings on a regular basis. The horror of the wars brought London together as a they took a united front against the war. The Imperial War Museum continues to tell that story as a singular force and unified story, which vanishes the points of view of others living in London at the time, such as Graham. At one point, Graham pointed out that he was Jewish, and that he welcomed many Jewish soldiers into his home growing up during the Jewish holidays. I think that details such as these are very important to tell and should not be discouraged or covered up by the museum.

Additionally, I spent most of my time in the museum in the Holocaust exhibit. I found this part of the museum very interactive and intriguing. Although obviously disturbing and depressing, the exhibit did a wonderful job of telling a story. The beginning of the exhibit told the stories of the many families before the Holocaust began and ended with stories of survivors. While this exhibit did not focus on London’s war efforts specifically, I think that it would have been inappropriate to do so. The exhibit is dedicated to those impacted and the survivors of this tragic event and highlighting the British WWII efforts in this exhibit would have changed the tone of it. (I would have taken a picture of this exhibit but we weren’t allowed)

In all, I think the Imperial War Museum needs to improve on its volunteer efforts by keeping unpaid and informal volunteers to continue to tell their stories. This contributes to the character and the tone of the museum incredibly well.  However, I thought that the tone and experience of the Holocaust exhibit was done perfectly and that they should not add more about Imperial London in that specific exhibit.