An Oxford University team is leading a UK-wide move to preserve memories of the First World War before they’re lost forever.
With Centenary events entering their last 18 months, researchers are appealing for ‘one final effort’ to record and save objects of the generation who lived through the war.
A crowd-funding campaign aims to raise at least £40,000 for a mass-digitisation project involving communities across Britain.
Every item collected will then be published on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice – 11 November 2018 – through a free-to-use online database for schools, scholars, and the wider public.
“We must not forget the sacrifice that generation made”, says project leader Dr Stuart Lee of Oxford University’s English Faculty.
“Every day the stories and memories of that generation are being lost.”
“We want to make sure that those boxes of memories and memorabilia kept in our attics, passed down through the generations, are not thrown away.”
Volunteers will be trained for digitisation events in village halls, community centres, schools, and libraries, to conserve photographs, diaries, letters, and mementos.
In particular, Lest We Forget aims to ‘unearth material which is personally held and which may be extremely rare and in danger of being lost.’
Online donations can be made via Oxreach, Oxford University’s crowd funding platform. There’s an explanatory video on Lest We Forget’s Facebook page.
Images courtesy of ‘Lest We Forget’, Oxford University
Posted by: CN Editorial Team