Centenary News in brief this week includes: a new exhibition on ‘Portugal and the Great War’ at the National Library of Portugal; a talk on Ottoman Perspectives of the conflict at Zurich University; a petition in the UK for Edith Cavell to feature on the £2 coin; and a Centenary conference at Georgia Fwinnett College, America.
National Library of Portugal
A new exhibition exploring Portugal’s experience of the First World War has opened at the country’s national library
It was opened on the 9th May and will run until the 31st July 2014. The exhibition has been developed by a research team at the Institute of Contemporary History with support from the National Library of Portugal.
It has been organised around ten key themes: Portugal and the War; War and Peace: Diplomacy and Foreign Relations; War in Africa; War in Europe – Flanders; In the trenches; Domestic Front; Social Crisis/Issues; Medicine; Arts and Letters; and Memory. Objects on display include books, manuscripts, photographs and posters from the collection of the National Library of Portugal.
Ottoman Perspectives
A talk at the the University of Zurich by Professor Mustafa Aksakal, author of The Ottoman road to war in 1914, will explore the war in the Middle East, with an emphasis on the “local history” of the conflict in the region.
It will be held on the 17th June 2014 at 4:15pm and will consider the Ottoman state, and “the various peoples… in their own right”.
Further information is available here.
Edith Cavell
More than 100,000 people have now signed an online petition calling for the executed British nurse, Edith Cavell, to be honoured on a UK £2 First World War Centenary coin.
Cavell was condemned to death by a German court martial in 1915 for helping Allied soldiers to escape from occupied Belgium.
The petition has drawn the support of more than 106,000 people and was started after it was announced Lord Kitchener would feature on the £2 coin – a move criticised by some as “jingoistic”.
Royal Mint, which produces the UK’s coinage, insists that a series of designs will be used over the four years of commemorations.
Georgia Gwinnett College
Georgia Gwinnett College is holding a Centenary conference on the 6th-8th November 2014, entitled: The Great War, a Hundred Years On: Origins, Lessons, and Legacies of the First World War.
Contact details: Dr. Nathan N. Orgill – norgill@ggc.edu
Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News