Your Comments

1. Rachel Wade | 30 January 2015

   Hi Alison,

   The online exhibition on the Google Cultural Institute was fantastic (link below). How easy/difficult was it to curate, and what do you think it contributed to representing the First World War?

   Rachel (Communications Assistant at York Museums Trust)

   https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/1914-when-the-world-changed-forever/QRpQw-AH?projectId=first-world-war

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      Hi Rachel
      Working with the Google institute has been a fantastic experience and very easy to do now that we have our collections online for the public to see. We will be doing more very soon which we are looking forward to. I think it has contributed by showing York specific stories in the wider World War One history, showing the experiences of people local to us.

2. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   How many men from York were involved in the First World War, what happened to York’s conscientious objectors and how many men returned from the war?

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      Hi Gillian,
      ‘Difficult question! York has been a garrison town for many years and so there has always been a large amount of soldiers in York. From the figures we have we believe that approximately 3600 men from York and the surrounding villages signed up voluntarily until the Derby Scheme in Spring of 1916. Conscientious objectors cases would have been heard in front of the tribunal at Guildhall, St Helens Square, York.’

3. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   @HLFYandH ·asks How do you plan on keeping the local community involved with @YorkCastle through out the Centenary? #MDYask

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      We have lots going on focused on local people and on issues that are relevant to York’s communities.

      Our next curator’s talk is a free talk by our Assistant Curator Philip Newton on the 21st February at the Castle Museum (also 28th February in Leeds Museum) called Identity and Sexuality During the First World War, given as part of LGBT History Month. Philip will be talking about changing ideas of masculinity during the war and how the war impacted on homosexuality.

      As well as talks and events, and our Hands on Here activities, we have a dedicated display space in our WWI exhibition for the local community to use. The Community Room is a space for local groups to put on exhibitions that relate to the First World War. Each exhibition lasts two months, and is curated by a different group. Right now we have a very moving display by the Friends of York Cemetery, which will be on until the end of February. This follows a display by York Quakers about Conscientious Objectors which was very popular. Other upcoming exhibitions include Women Poets of the First World War, and Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre’s exhibition about the Scarborough Bombardment.

      Looking forward to 2018 we’re planning a community exhibition about suffragettes and votes for women. We’ll be looking to include local people and groups. We’re in the early stages of planning this, but if anyone reading this would like to be involved please get in touch!

4. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   @MDTurnpenny ·ask Which (collections) hazards did you come across when creating the exhibition and how did you respond? #mdyask

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      Hi Michael
      Our main concerns during preparations for the exhibition came from some of the weapons we wanted to include; namely firearms and explosive devices. Objects such as hand grenades were examined by explosives experts and certified free from explosives (FFE). We also worked with North Yorkshire Police to assure the security of our displays. We even have a specially de-actived Lee Enfield rifle that our volunteers are able use in Hands on Here sessions with visitors.

5. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   Could you tell me more about the lovely chocolate box below? What’s the connection with Chocolate and York?

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      Hi Gillian,

      These chocolate boxes are a really wonderful piece of local history. The Rowntree family have been producing chocolate in York since 1862. At Christmas 1914, the Sherriff, Oscar F. Rowntree and the Lord Mayor of York, John Bowes Morell arranged for one of these tins to be sent to every man from York on active service. City of York Archives at York Explore have a number of letters from servicemen thanking Morrell and Rowntree for the gift (a few even grumbling that theirs hadn’t arrived yet!). We have copies of some of the letters in the exhibition, and a number of the boxes in the collection – one of them even has the chocolate still in it!

6. Laura Ugolini | 30 January 2015

   Hello Alison / Mike,
   do you have any information / documents explaining how these and other objects relating to the First World War reached the museum?
   Many thanks
   Laura

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      We have some lovely stories about how objects came to be a part of the Castle Museum’s collections.

      The teddy bear pictured above came to us as the bequest of a lady who was born only a few years before the outbreak of war. Her name was Alice Doherty, and her father gave her the bear just before he went off to war in 1914. She kept the bear all her life, and just before she passed away she pinned a note to him asking her executors to donate him to the Castle Museum. She asked that we find a corner for him, as she would hate for anyone to throw him away. We’ve kept him safe ever since, and are very pleased to be able to put him on display (he’s in the Home Front section of our exhibition).

      Another story belongs to one of the two WAAC uniforms we have on display. The owner, Alice Battersby, visited the museum in the 1950s. She enjoyed the exhibitions so much that she ended up talking to the Assistant Curator. At that time we had very few WWI objects in the collection, so Alice offered to donate her WAAC uniform and the papers from her time in France when she ran the Calais Pay office.

      We also have some wonderful objects that were donated very recently. This has been brilliant for us – it’s very useful to be able to talk to the descendents and other relatives of people represented in our collections.

      We don’t have information for all of our objects, though. The Castle Museum opened in 1938, when Dr Kirk’s collection was already several decades old and comprised of thousands of objects. The museum has been collecting since then, and not all objects came into the collection with a story, especially those that were donated early on.

7. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   @AnnaJarvisHLF asks In your #WW1 exhibition, were there any stories you wanted to focus on because you thought they’d been forgotten? #mdyask

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      HI Anna,
      What a wonderful question! As we were looking in our collection at objects from WW1 we discovered these stories ourselves. We did not know anything about our characters until we looked at what they donated to us and researched them further. Alice Battersby is part of our character trail and her story was discovered. She donated her objects to us after she visited in the 1950s including her Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps uniform which you can see in our exhibition. A lot of the WAAC information were sadly destroyed in WW2 and without this donation we would not be able to tell her story.

      1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

         ‏@AnnaJarvisHLF says I’ve heard great things about the exhibition – hope I can come and see it one day.

8. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   I love the idea of 100 year old chocolate! can you still eat it?

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      It still smells vaguely chocolatey, although I wouldn’t recommend it! Of course, as a piece of the collection, our duty is to protect it for future generations. Who knows, it could be a 200 year old box of chocolate one day. So sorry, no samples I’m afraid!

9. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

   ‏@HLFEoE · asks #MDYask what has surprised you most about delivering an #understandingww1 project?

   1. Mike Linstead | 30 January 2015

      Hi HLFEoE

      We knew that the local community would like to be involved but we didn’t anticipate the extent that they have been. It has been wonderful to hear their stories and memories and share them within our exhibition. We have a space where the public and organisations can put on their own exhibition that linked to the First World War. We would like to continue this and engage further with other groups in our community. We would also like to talk with other museums in the area to discuss the exhibitions and learn from each other.

10. Gillian Waters | 30 January 2015

    ‏@MDTurnpenny · says If you would like to know more about YMT and the region’s work commemorating WWI please sign up to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/commemorating-the-battle-of-waterloo-and-world-war-one-in-museums-tickets-15556376541 … #mdyask