134-511: IWM may refer to: Imperial War Museum , British national museum organisation Information Warfare Monitor iShares Russell 2000 , NYSE Arca symbol Integrated Woz Machine , Apple computer floppy drives Intelligent workload management of computing resources International Woman Master, now Woman International Master , chess titles Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen ("Institute for human sciences") (IWM) Topics referred to by
268-550: A 6-inch triple turret that would be representative of a number of classes of British cruisers . This would eventually lead to the preservation of the Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Belfast , which became a branch of the museum in 1978. Later in 1968 on 13 October the museum was attacked by an arsonist , Timothy John Daly, who claimed he was acting in protest against the exhibition of militarism to children. He caused damage valued at approximately £200,000, not counting
402-714: A Canadian Red Ensign carried at Vimy Ridge in 1917, a Union flag from the 1942 British surrender of Singapore , and another found among the wreckage of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks ), as well a piece of the towers; personal mementoes, souvenirs and miscellanea such as trench art ; orders, medals and decorations (including collections of Victoria and George Crosses ); military equipment; firearms and ammunition, ordnance, edged weapons, clubs (such as trench clubs ) and other weapons, and vehicles, aircraft and ships. The museum holds
536-546: A Supermarine Spitfire flown during the Battle of Britain . The museum's naval collection includes HM Coastal Motor Boat 4 and a midget submarine HMS XE8 . In 2012 the museum reported its exhibits collection to contain 155,000 objects and a further 357 vehicles and aircraft. The museum's library is a national reference collection on modern conflict, and holds works on all aspects of warfare, including regimental or unit histories (such as 789 rare German unit histories from
670-713: A bachelor's degree —increasingly repositories list advanced degrees (e.g. MA, MLS/MLIS, Ph.D.) and certifications as a position requirement or preference. In the UK, the National Archives (formerly known as the Public Record Office) is the government archive for England and Wales . The physical records stored by the National Archives amount to 185 km (115 miles) of shelving, a number that increases every year. The English Heritage Archive
804-746: A basis for nations to build their own standards. In the United States, ISAD (G) is implemented through Describing Archives: A Content Standard , popularly known as "DACS". In Canada, ISAD (G) is implemented through the Council of Archives as the Rules for Archival Description , also known as "RAD". ISO is currently working on standards. The cultural property stored in archives is threatened by natural disasters, wars, or other emergencies in many countries. International partners for archives are UNESCO and Blue Shield International , in accordance with
938-615: A body such as the American Library Association ). Subject-area specialization becomes more common in higher-ranking positions. Archives located in for-profit institutions are usually those owned by a private business. Examples of prominent business archives in the United States include Coca-Cola (which also owns the separate museum World of Coca-Cola ), Procter and Gamble , Motorola Heritage Services and Archives, and Levi Strauss & Co. These corporate archives maintain historic documents and items related to
1072-534: A branch of the Imperial War Museum on 1 March 1978, being acknowledged by the then Secretary of State for Education and Science , Shirley Williams , as "a unique demonstration of an important phase of our history and technology". In service for 24 years HMS Belfast was in Frankland's opinion, capable of representing "a whole generation of [historical evidence]". In 2017, the name of the exhibit
1206-558: A bus used by British forces in the First World War, and a number of vehicles used by Field Marshal Montgomery during the Second World War. The museum's aircraft collection includes aircraft that are notable for their rarity, such as the only complete and original Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 in existence and one of only two surviving TSR-2 strike aircraft, and aircraft associated with particular actions, such as
1340-728: A cost of £5 million. Two years later, in July 2002, Imperial War Museum North was opened. Between 2004 and 2010 the museum was a partner in a national learning project entitled "Their Past Your Future" (TPYF), part of the Big Lottery Fund 's Veterans Reunited programme to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. A partnership between the IWM, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council , and Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh museum authorities, phase one included
1474-402: A distinguishing dome, and two great wings added to it for the accommodation of lunatics no longer required. This particular building can be made to contain our collection admirably, and we shall preserve from destruction quite a fine building which otherwise will disappear". The "distinguishing dome" was added by Sydney Smirke in 1846 and housed the hospital's chapel. The museum was reopened by
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#17327753704751608-530: A further 254,000 items of reference material. The museum's Sound Archive holds 33,000 sound recordings, including a large collection of oral history recordings of witnesses to conflicts since 1914. The museum's sound collection originated in 1972 with the creation of the Department of Sound Records and the instigation of an oral history recording programme. The sound collection opened to the public in July 1977. The collection also includes recordings made by
1742-458: A further wing opened in 1949. In 1953, with Commonwealth forces engaged in Korea and Malaya the museum began its current policy of collecting material from all modern conflicts in which British or Commonwealth forces were involved. Despite this expansion of remit, the early postwar period was a period of decline for the museum. Noble Frankland , the museum's director from 1960 to 1982, described
1876-555: A government archive, and frequent users include reporters , genealogists , writers, historians , students, and people seeking information on the history of their home or region. Many government archives are open to the public, and no appointment is required to visit. In the United States, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) maintains central archival facilities in the District of Columbia and College Park, Maryland , with regional facilities distributed throughout
2010-410: A large art collection, and examples of military vehicles and aircraft, equipment, and other artefacts. The museum is funded by government grants, charitable donations, and revenue generation through commercial activity such as retailing, licensing, and publishing. General admission is free to IWM London (although specific exhibitions require the purchase of a ticket) and IWM North, but an admission fee
2144-755: A number of European organizations, including the European Commission, choose to deposit their archives with the European University Institute in Florence. A prominent church archive is the Vatican Apostolic Archive . Archdioceses , dioceses , and parishes also have archives in the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. Very important are monastery archives because of their antiquity, like
2278-515: A pair of 15-inch naval guns . One had been mounted on the Royal Navy 's HMS Ramillies and the other on both HMS Resolution and HMS Roberts . Both had been fired in action during the Second World War. They went on permanent display outside the museum in May 1968. The acquisition of these guns, representative of the dreadnought era of British battleships , led the museum to seek to acquire
2412-574: A particular message to posterity. In general, archives consist of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on the grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines, of which many identical copies may exist. This means that archives are quite distinct from libraries with regard to their functions and organization, although archival collections can often be found within library buildings. A person who works in archives
2546-556: A permanent gallery, Secret War , exploring special forces , espionage and covert operations . The second floor included the atrium viewing balcony, two art galleries, a temporary exhibition area and the permanent Crimes against Humanity exhibition. The third floor housed the permanent Holocaust Exhibition , and the fourth floor, a vaulted roof space, accommodated the Lord Ashcroft Gallery. Opened in November 2010
2680-585: A prestigious area for museums, the accommodation itself proved cramped and inadequate and in 1936 a new permanent location was found south of the River Thames in Southwark. The building, designed by James Lewis was the former Bethlem Royal Hospital which had been vacated following the hospital's relocation to Beckenham in Kent. The site was owned by Lord Rothermere , who had originally intended to demolish
2814-485: A programme of temporary exhibitions, mounted in a separate gallery. The Imperial War Museum's original collections date back to the material amassed by the National War Museum Committee. The present departmental organisation came into being during the 1960s as part of Frankland's reorganisation of the museum. The 1970s saw oral history gain increasing prominence and in 1972 the museum created
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#17327753704752948-550: A tendency to prioritize tangible items over ephemeral experiences, actions, effects, and even bodies. This type of potentially biased prioritization may be seen as a form of privileging particular types of knowledge or interpreting certain experiences as more valid than others, limiting the content available to archive users, leading to barriers in accessing information, and potentially alienating under-represented and/or marginalized populations and their epistemologies and ontologies . As Omnia El Shakry shows, dealing with destruction
3082-442: A touring exhibition seen by more than two million people, overseas educational visits and further activities run by local authorities. A second phase took a wider 20th century historical remit; it comprised a learning programme using overseas visits and social media , and a professional development scheme for educators. A digital archive of the project, online exhibitions and learning resources were also produced. In October 2011
3216-634: Is a challenge central to decolonial historiography. When faced with a lack of archival documents, historians resort to different sources and methods. For example, due to the lack of a Palestinian state archive, many historians of Nakba had to rely on sources in the Israeli state's archives. As a result of this perceived under-representation, some activists are making efforts to decolonize contemporary archival institutions that may employ hegemonic and white supremacist practices by implementing subversive alternatives such as anarchiving or counter-archiving with
3350-504: Is being created. Archives in colleges, universities, and other educational facilities are typically housed within a library, and duties may be carried out by an archivist . Academic archives exist to preserve institutional history and serve the academic community. An academic archive may contain materials such as the institution's administrative records, personal and professional papers of former professors and presidents, memorabilia related to school organizations and activities, and items
3484-531: Is called an archivist . The study and practice of organizing, preserving, and providing access to information and materials in archives is called archival science . The physical place of storage can be referred to as an archive (more usual in the United Kingdom ), an archives (more usual in the United States ), or a repository. The computing use of the term "archive" should not be confused with
3618-532: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum ( IWM ), currently branded " Imperial War Museums ", is a British national museum . It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civil and military war effort and sacrifice of
3752-551: Is kept on reels of specially developed film in a steel vault buried deep beneath the permafrost , with the data storage medium expected to last for 500 to 1000 years. The International Council on Archives (ICA) has developed a number of standards on archival description, including the General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G). ISAD (G) is meant to be used in conjunction with national standards or as
3886-540: Is levied at the other branches. The museum is an exempt charity under the Charities Act 1993 and a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport . As of April 2024, the chairman of the trustees is Guy Weston . Since May 2023, Caro Howell has served as the museum's director-general On 27 February 1917 Sir Alfred Mond , a Liberal MP and First Commissioner of Works, wrote to
4020-487: Is now largely occupied by corporate offices. The 1966 extension houses the library, art store, and document archives while the 1980s redevelopments created exhibition space over five floors. The first stage created 8,000 m of gallery space of which 4,600 m was new, and the second provided a further 1,600 m . The final phase, the Southwest Infill, was partly funded by a £12.6 million grant from
4154-636: Is operated in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council and the Duxford Aviation Society, a charity formed in 1975 to preserve civil aircraft and promote appreciation of British civil aviation history. HMS Belfast , a Town class cruiser , was launched in 1938 and served throughout the Second World War , participating in the December 1943 Battle of North Cape and firing some of the first shots of Operation Overlord ,
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4288-702: Is the public archive of English Heritage . The National Records of Scotland , located in Edinburgh , serves that country; while the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast is the government archive for Northern Ireland. A network of county record offices and other local authority-run archives exists throughout England, Wales, and Scotland and holds many important collections, including local government, landed estates, church, and business records. Many archives have contributed catalogs to
4422-671: The Association of European Film Archives and Cinematheques is an affiliation of 49 European national and regional film archives founded in 1991. For a comprehensive look at the history of film preservation and the institutions and organizations that developed various practices, see Penelope Houston 's Keepers of the Frame. Non-profit archives include those in historical societies , not-for-profit businesses such as hospitals, and repositories within foundations . Such repositories are typically set up with private funds from donors to preserve
4556-454: The BBC during the Second World War, actuality sound effects, broadcasts, speeches and poetry. As part of the museum's First World War centenary programme, the museum is producing Voices of the First World War , a podcast series drawing upon the museum's oral history recordings. In 2012 the museum reported the size of its sound collection as 37,000 hours. The IWM has an online database, listing
4690-620: The French Revolution . The French National Archives , which possess perhaps the largest archival collection in the world (with records going as far back as 625 A.D.), was created in 1790 during the Revolution from various government, religious, and private archives seized by the revolutionaries. In 1883, French archivist Gabriel Richou published the first Western text on archival theory, entitled Traité théorique et pratique des archives publiques ( Treaty of Theory and Practice of
4824-556: The Heritage Lottery Fund and provided 5,860m of gallery space and educational facilities over six floors. Before the 2013–14 redevelopment, the basement was occupied by permanent galleries on the First and Second World Wars, and of conflicts after 1945. The ground floor comprised the atrium, cinema, temporary exhibition spaces, and visitor facilities. The first floor included the atrium mezzanine, education facilities, and
4958-625: The National Overseas Archives (ANOM, 36.5 kilometres (22.7 mi) of physical records), the National Archives of the World of Labour [ fr ] (ANMT, 49.8 kilometres (30.9 mi) of physical records), and all local public archives (departmental archives, or archives départementales , located in the préfectures of each of the 100 départements of France plus the City of Paris, more than 400 municipal archives in
5092-873: The Parachute Regiment and the Royal Anglian Regiment . Based on the historic Duxford Aerodrome , the site was originally operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the First World War . During the Second World War Duxford played a prominent role during the Battle of Britain and was later used by United States Army Air Forces fighter units in support of the daylight bombing of Germany. Duxford remained an active RAF airfield until 1961. Many of Duxford's original buildings, such as hangars used during
5226-568: The Petroleum Warfare Department . These included the submarine fuel pipeline PLUTO , the fog dispersal method FIDO , and flame weapons such as the Churchill Crocodile and Wasp Universal Carrier . Due to bomb damage to the building and exhibits, the museum was obliged to reopen its galleries piecemeal and opened a portion of its galleries in November 1946. A third of the galleries were opened in 1948 and
5360-601: The United Nations UNTV service in Bosnia. As an official repository under the 1958 Public Records Act, the archive continues to receive material from the Ministry of Defence. The archive also seeks to acquire amateur film taken by both service personnel and civilian cameramen. Material from the collection was used in the production of TV documentary series such as The Great War and The World at War . In 2012
5494-483: The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS), and Google Art Project . In 2012 the museum reported the total size of its art collection as 84,980 items. The museum's Film and Video Archive is one of the oldest film archives in the world. The archive preserves a range of historically significant film and video material, including the official British film record of the First World War . Notable among
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5628-413: The chapel beneath. The building also featured a theatre in a building to the rear of the site. The building remained substantially unchanged until vacated by the hospital in 1930. After the freehold was purchased by Lord Rothermere , the wings were demolished to leave the original central portion (with the dome now appearing disproportionately tall) and Smirke's later wings. When the museum moved into
5762-481: The conflict's centenary in 2014, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge became the foundation's patron. In a speech at IWM London on 11 October 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron announced an additional £5 million of government funding to support the museum's redevelopment, as part of funding arrangements to facilitate national centenary commemorations. The £40 million redevelopment, designed by Foster and Partners , provides new gallery spaces dedicated to
5896-482: The surrender of Japan . Their historical value was recognised early on, and the public were able to visit by appointment. However, the practicalities of allowing public access to a site beneath a working government office meant that only 4,500 of 30–40,000 annual applicants to visit the War Rooms could be admitted. The museum agreed to take over the administration of the site in 1982, a development keenly supported by
6030-399: The 1958 Public Records Act, and as such continues to receive material from the Ministry of Defence. In 2012 the museum reported the size of its photographic holdings as approximately 11 million images in 17,263 collections. The museum's exhibits collection includes a wide range of objects, organised into numerous smaller collections such as uniforms, badges, insignia and flags (including
6164-695: The Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. She saw further combat in the Korean War . Expected to be disposed of as scrap after she was decommissioned in 1963, in 1967 efforts were initiated to preserve Belfast as a museum ship. A joint committee of the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and the Ministry of Defence was established, and reported in June 1968 that preservation
6298-622: The Army, the Navy, the production of munitions , and women's war work . There was an early appreciation of the need for exhibits to reflect personal experience in order to prevent the collections becoming dead relics. Sir Martin Conway , the museum's first director general, said that exhibits must "be vitalised by contributions expressive of the action, the experiences, the valour and the endurance of individuals". The museum's first curator and secretary
6432-570: The Battle of Britain, are still in use. A number of these buildings are of architectural or historic significance and over thirty have listed building status. The site also features a number of purpose-built exhibition buildings, such as the Stirling Prize -winning American Air Museum, designed by Sir Norman Foster . The site remains an active airfield and is used by a number of civilian flying companies, and hosts regular air shows . The site
6566-603: The British landings on D-Day in June 1944, and the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. The archive also holds government information films and propaganda features such as Target for Tonight (1941) and Desert Victory (1943). The archive's post-Second World War collections include material from the Korean War , Cold War material, the former film library of NATO , and material produced by
6700-687: The Cabinet Office. The collection also includes files on Victoria and George Cross recipients, and correspondence relating to the BBC documentary The Great War . The documents collection also includes the UK National Inventory of War Memorials . In 2012 the museum reported its documents collection to contain 24,800 collections of papers. The museum's art collection includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and works in film, photography and sound . The collection originated during
6834-518: The California State Prison System describe what happened to them. The archive's mission is to gather stories from women who want to express themselves and want their stories heard. This collection includes transcripts and an audio recording of the women telling their stories. The archives of an individual may include letters, papers, photographs, computer files, scrapbooks, financial records, or diaries created or collected by
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#17327753704756968-506: The Department of Sound Records (now the Sound Archive) to record interviews with individuals who had experienced the First World War. The museum maintains an online database of its collections . The museum's documents archive seeks to collect and preserve the private papers of individuals who have experienced modern warfare. The archive's holdings range from the papers of senior British and Commonwealth army, navy and air officers, to
7102-554: The Duke of York (later King George VI ) in its new accommodation on 7 July 1936. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the museum began to collect material documenting the conflict. In November 1939, during the " Phoney War ", the museum appeared in the opening sequence of the GPO Film Unit production The First Days , in which children are seen playing on some of the museum's German artillery pieces captured during
7236-723: The Falklands, the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The collection also includes over twenty thousand items of publicity material such as posters, postcards, and proclamations from both world wars, and more recent material such as posters issued by anti-war organisations such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Stop the War Coalition . The museum's collection is represented in digital resources such as
7370-472: The First World War to the Falklands War . For some years the museum was marketed as "The new Imperial War Museum". This atrium, with its concentration of military hardware, has been described as "the biggest boys' bedroom in London". This first phase cost £16.7 million (of which £12 million was provided by the government) and the museum was reopened by The Queen on 29 June 1989. In 1990,
7504-591: The First World War) or a gun served by Victoria Cross -winning boy seaman Jack Cornwell . The museum was closed for the duration of the war in September 1940 with the onset of the Blitz . On 31 January 1941 the museum was struck by a Luftwaffe bomb which fell on the naval gallery. A number of ship models were damaged by the blast and a Short Type 184 seaplane, which had flown at the Battle of Jutland ,
7638-514: The First World War), technical manuals, biographical material and works on war's social, cultural, economic, political and military aspects. The library also holds printed ephemera such as the Imperial War Museum Stamp Collection , leaflets and ration books, printed proclamations, newspapers, trench magazines (such The Wipers Times ) and trench maps . In 2012 the museum reported its library collection to contain over 80,000 items of historic importance (such as maps, proclamations and rare books) and
7772-510: The First World War, when the museum acquired works that it had itself commissioned, as well as works commissioned by the Ministry of Information's British War Memorials Committee . As early as 1920 the art collection held over 3,000 works and included pieces by John Singer Sargent , Wyndham Lewis , John Nash and Christopher Nevinson . Notable First World War works include Sargent's Gassed and other works commissioned for an, unbuilt, Hall of Remembrance . The collection expanded again after
7906-474: The First World War. With the Dunkirk evacuation in May–June 1940, the British Army's shortage of equipment saw eighteen of the museum's artillery pieces return to military service. The museum's trench clubs were used by the Home Guard , while other items such as sights and optical instruments were returned to the Ministry of Supply. The museum refused to return some historic items such as a naval gun from HMS Lance (which had fired Britain's first shot of
8040-494: The Greek word is ἀρχή ( arkhē ), meaning among other things "magistracy, office, government", and derived from the verb ἄρχω ( arkhō ), meaning "to begin, rule, govern" (also the root of English words such as "anarchy" and "monarchy"). The word archive was first attested in English in the early 17th century, and the word archivist in the mid-18th century, although in these periods both terms were usually used only in reference to foreign institutions and personnel. Not until
8174-406: The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property from 1954 and its 2nd Protocol from 1999. From a national and international perspective, there are many collaborations between archives and local Blue Shield organizations to ensure the sustainable existence of cultural property storage facilities. In addition to working with United Nations peacekeeping in the event of war, the protection of
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#17327753704758308-496: The Prime Minister David Lloyd George to propose the establishment of a National War Museum. This proposal was accepted by the War Cabinet on 5 March 1917 and the decision announced in The Times on 26 March. A committee was established, chaired by Mond, to oversee the collection of material to be exhibited in the new museum. This National War Museum Committee set about collecting material to illustrate Britain's war effort by dividing into subcommittees examining such subjects as
8442-401: The Public Archives ), in which he systematized the archival theory of the respect des fonds , first published by Natalis de Wailly in 1841. Historians, genealogists , lawyers, demographers , filmmakers, and others conduct research at archives. The research process at each archive is unique and depends upon the institution that houses the archive. While there are many kinds of archives,
8576-501: The Second World War, receiving thousands of works sponsored by the Ministry of Information's War Artists' Advisory Committee . In 1972 the museum established the Artistic Records Committee (since renamed the Art Commissions Committee) to commission artists to cover contemporary conflicts. Commissioned artists include Ken Howard , Linda Kitson , John Keane , Peter Howson , Steve McQueen (see Queen and Country ) and Langlands & Bell , responding to conflicts in Northern Ireland,
8710-402: The Second World War, which opened in April 2012. In August 2009 the museum announced the creation of the Imperial War Museum Foundation. Chaired by Jonathan Harmsworth the foundation was charged with raising funds to support the redevelopment of Imperial War Museum London's permanent galleries. In December 2010 plans were announced to redevelop IWM London's First World War gallery in time for
8844-402: The Southwark building, during which the museum remained open to the public, was completed in 1994. During the 1990s, while these works were going on, the museum was also seeking to open a branch in the north of England. 71 sites were offered for consideration by 36 local councils and in January 1999 the then Culture Secretary Chris Smith formally launched a project to construct a new branch of
8978-477: The Southwark site and approached engineering firm Arup to plan a phased programme of works that would expand the building's exhibition space, provide appropriate environmental controls to protect collections, and improve facilities for visitors. The following year, in April 1984, the Cabinet War Rooms were opened to the public as a branch of the museum. The first phase of the works to the Southwark building started in 1986 and were completed in 1989, during which time
9112-411: The United Kingdom and its Empire during the First World War . The museum's remit has since expanded to include all conflicts in which British or Commonwealth forces have been involved since 1914. As of 2012, the museum aims "to provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and 'wartime experience'." Originally housed in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill ,
9246-469: The United Methodist Archives and History Center of the United Methodist Church, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Film archives collect, restore, investigate and conserve audiovisual content like films, documentaries, tv programs and newsreel footage. Often, a country has its own film archive to preserve its national audiovisual heritage. The International Federation of Film Archives comprises more than 150 institutions in over 77 countries and
9380-480: The United States. Some city or local governments may have repositories, but their organization and accessibility vary widely. Similar to the library profession, certification requirements and education also varies widely, from state to state. Professional associations themselves encourage the need to professionalize. NARA offers the Certificate of Federal Records Management Training Program for professional development. The majority of state and local archives staff hold
9514-598: The University of Victoria , which contain a multitude of collections of donations from both individuals and organizations from all over the world. Many of these donations have yet to be cataloged but are currently in the process of being digitally preserved and made available to the public online. The Arctic World Archive is a commercially-run facility for data preservation located in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway, that contains data of historical and cultural interest from several countries as well as all of American multinational company GitHub 's open source code . The data
9648-584: The War Rooms were rebranded as the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, with 850 m of the site redeveloped as a biographical museum exploring Churchill's life. The development of the Churchill Museum cost a further £6 million. The centrepiece is a 15 m interactive table which enables visitors to access digitised material, particularly from the Churchill Archives Centre , via an "electronic filing cabinet". The museum
9782-699: The Western Front, who reportedly took great interest in his work. In December 1917 the name was changed to the Imperial War Museum after a resolution from the India and Dominions Committee of the museum. The museum was opened by King George V at the Crystal Palace on 9 June 1920. During the opening ceremony, Sir Alfred Mond addressed the King on behalf of the committee, saying that "it
9916-725: The academic library wishes to remain in a closed-stack setting, such as rare books or thesis copies. Access to the collections in these archives is usually by prior appointment only; some have posted hours for making inquiries. Users of academic archives can be undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff, scholarly researchers, and the general public. Many academic archives work closely with alumni relations departments or other campus institutions to help raise funds for their library or school. Qualifications for employment may vary. Entry-level positions usually require an undergraduate diploma, but typically archivists hold graduate degrees in history or library science (preferably certified by
10050-462: The ancient Chinese, the ancient Greeks, and the ancient Romans (who called them Tabularia ). However, those archives have been lost since documents written on materials like papyrus and paper deteriorated relatively quickly, unlike their clay tablet counterparts. Archives of churches, kingdoms, and cities from the Middle Ages survive and have often kept their official status uninterruptedly to
10184-521: The archive's First World War holdings is The Battle of the Somme , a pioneering 1916 documentary film (which was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2005), and Der Magische Gürtel , a German 1917 propaganda film about the submarine U-35 . The archive's Second World War holdings include unedited film shot by British military cameramen, which document combat actions such as
10318-842: The archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Diplomatic Archives [ fr ] , ca. 120 kilometres (75 mi) of physical records) are managed separately by their respective ministries and do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Archives of France Administration. In India , the National Archives (NAI) are located in New Delhi. In Taiwan , the National Archives Administration are located in Taipei . Most intergovernmental organizations keep their own historical archives. However,
10452-441: The archives requires the creation of "no-strike lists", the linking of civil and military structures, and the training of local personnel. Archives that primarily contain physical artifacts and printed documents are increasingly shifting to digitizing items that did not originate digitally , which are then usually stored away. This allows for greater accessibility when using search tools and databases, as well as an increase in
10586-429: The availability of digitized materials from outside the physical parameters of an archive, but there may be an element of loss or disconnect when there are gaps in what items are made available digitally. Both physical and digital archives also generally have specific limitations regarding the types of content that are deemed able to be preserved, categorized, and archived. Conventional institutionalized archive spaces have
10720-523: The building in 1936 the ground floor of the central portion was occupied by the principal art gallery, with the east wing housing the Naval gallery and the west wing the Army gallery. The Air Force gallery was housed in the former theatre. The first floor comprised further art galleries (including rooms dedicated to Sir William Orpen and Sir John Lavery ), a gallery on women's war work , and exhibits relating to transport and signals. The first floor also housed
10854-410: The building to provide a public park in what was a severely overcrowded area of London. Eventually the central portion of the hospital building was retained. The two extensive wings were removed and the resulting space named Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park , after Lord Rothermere's mother. Sir Martin Conway described the building as "...a fine building, really quite noble building, with a great portico,
10988-526: The course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the history and function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate
11122-618: The education required for a position at a non-profit archive varies with the demands of the collection's user base. Web archiving is the process of collecting portions of the World Wide Web and ensuring the collection is preserved in an archive, such as an archive site , for future researchers, historians, and the public. Due to the massive size of the Web, web archivists typically employ web crawlers for automated collection. Similarly, software code and documentation can be archived on
11256-580: The existing permanent exhibition. In 1989 the museum acquired the All Saints Annexe, a former hospital building in Austral Street off West Square . The 1867 building, which backs onto Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park , was originally an orphanage opened by local philanthropist Charlotte Sharman , then later used as a hospital. It housed the museum's photographic, film and sound archives, and offices. Imperial War Museum Duxford, near
11390-407: The fifth branch of the museum and the first in the north of England. From the 1980s onwards, the museum's Southwark building underwent a series of multimillion-pound redevelopments, the latest of which was completed in 2022. The museum's collections include archives of personal and official documents, photographs , film and video material, and oral history recordings, an extensive library ,
11524-478: The former Bethlem Royal Hospital on Lambeth Road since 1936. The hospital building was designed by the hospital surveyor, James Lewis, from plans submitted by John Gandy and other architects, and construction completed in October 1814. The hospital consisted of a range of buildings 580 feet long with a basement and three storeys, parallel to Lambeth Road , with a central entrance under a portico . The building
11658-528: The gallery exhibits the museum's Victoria Cross (VC) and George Cross collection, alongside the private VC collection amassed by Michael Ashcroft , 241 medals in total. In August 2019, the museum announced plans to spend over £30m on a new set of galleries over two floors at its London site covering the Holocaust and its importance in World War II. The galleries opened in October 2021 to replace
11792-470: The history and administration of their companies. Business archives serve the purpose of helping corporations maintain control over their brand by retaining memories of the company's past. Especially in business archives, records management is separate from the historical aspect of archives. Workers in these types of archives may have any combination of training and degrees, from either a history or library background. These archives are typically not open to
11926-460: The history of the First World War, a new central hall, easier navigation and improved visitor facilities, access and circulation. In preparation for building work, a number of galleries were closed during September 2012, and by December 2012 over sixty large objects had been removed from the IWM London atrium for conservation at Duxford. To allow building work to go ahead, IWM London closed to
12060-482: The individual, regardless of medium or format. The archives of an organization (such as a corporation or government) tend to contain other types of records, such as administrative files, business records, memos, official correspondence, and meeting minutes. Some archives are made up of a compilation of both types of collections. An example of this type of combined compilation is the Transgender Archives at
12194-634: The inherent impermanence and gradual change of physical objects over time as a result of being handled. The concept of counter-archiving brings into question what tends to be considered archivable and what is therefore selected to be preserved within conventional contemporary archives. With the options available through counter-archiving, there is the potential to "challenge traditional conceptions of history" as they are perceived within contemporary archives, which creates space for narratives that are often not present in many archival materials. The unconventional nature of counter-archiving practices makes room for
12328-546: The intention of making intersectional accessibility a priority for those who cannot or do not want to access contemporary archival institutions. An example of this is Morgan M. Page's description of disseminating transgender history directly to trans people through various social media and networking platforms like tumblr , Twitter , and Instagram , as well as via podcast . While the majority of archived materials are typically well conserved within their collections, anarchiving's attention to ephemerality also brings to light
12462-557: The larger towns and cities of France, and 12 newer regional archives) which possess 3,591 km (2,231 miles) of physical records and 225.25 terabytes of electronic archives (as of 2020 ). Put together, the total volume of archives under the supervision of the French Archives Administration is the largest in the world. The archives of the French Ministry of Armed Forces ( Defence Historical Service , ca. 450 kilometres (280 mi) of physical records) and
12596-657: The late 19th century did they begin to be used widely in domestic contexts. The adjective formed from archive is archival . The practice of keeping official documents is very old. Archaeologists have discovered archives of hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of clay tablets dating back to the third and second millennia BC in sites like Ebla , Mari , Amarna , Hattusas , Ugarit , and Pylos . These discoveries have been fundamental to learning about ancient alphabets, languages, literature, and politics. Oral literature, such as Palestinian hikaye , can also have archival functions for communities. Archives were well developed by
12730-581: The letters, diaries and memoirs of lower-ranked servicemen and of civilians. The collection includes the papers of Field Marshals Bernard Montgomery , and Sir John French . The archive also includes large collections of foreign documents, such as captured German Second World War documents previously held by the Cabinet Office Historical Section, Air Historical Branch and other British government bodies. The foreign collection also includes captured Japanese material transferred from
12864-473: The loss of irreplaceable books and documents. On his conviction in 1969 he was sentenced to four years in prison. In 1969 RAF Duxford, a Royal Air Force fighter airfield in Cambridgeshire was declared surplus to requirements by the Ministry of Defence . Needing further space, the museum duly requested permission to use part of the site as temporary storage. The entire site was later transferred to
12998-484: The most basic principles of archival science may have an archive. In the 2004 census of archivists taken in the United States, 2.7% of archivists were employed in institutions that defied categorization. This was a separate figure from the 1.3% that identified themselves as self-employed. Another type of archive is the Public Secrets project. This is an interactive testimonial, in which women incarcerated in
13132-411: The most recent census of archivists in the United States identifies five major types: academic , business (for profit) , government , non-profit , and others . There are also four main areas of inquiry involved with archives: material technologies, organizing principles, geographic locations, and tangled embodiments of humans and non-humans. These areas help to further categorize what kind of archive
13266-603: The museum rebranded itself as Imperial War Museums, the initials IWM forming the basis of a new corporate logo. In September 2011 the museum secured funding from NESTA , the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Arts Council England to develop "social interpretation" systems to allow visitors to comment on, collect, and share museum objects via social media. These systems were incorporated in "A Family in Wartime", an exhibition at IWM London depicting British family life during
13400-534: The museum in February 1976 and Duxford, now referred to as Imperial War Museum Duxford became the museum's first branch. Also during the 1970s the government raised the possibility of the museum taking over the historic Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall . The museum was reluctant due to its new commitments related to Duxford and HMS Belfast , but agreed in 1982. By 1983 the museum was again looking to redevelop
13534-527: The museum opened IWM Duxford at Duxford airfield in Cambridgeshire , and in 1978 the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Belfast , which is permanently berthed on the River Thames in central London, became a branch of the museum. In 1984, Churchill War Rooms , an underground wartime command centre in Westminster , were opened to the public. In 2002 IWM North opened in Trafford , Greater Manchester ,
13668-614: The museum opened to the public in 1920. In 1924, it moved to space in the Imperial Institute in South Kensington and in 1936 it acquired a permanent home at the former Bethlem Royal Hospital in Southwark , which serves as its headquarters. The outbreak of the Second World War saw the museum expand both its collections and its terms of reference, but in the post-war period it entered a period of decline. In 1976
13802-436: The museum reported the size of its film archive as being in excess of 23,000 hours of film, video and digital footage. IWM participated in the national digitising project Unlocking Film Heritage . The museum's Photograph Archive preserves photographs by official, amateur and professional photographers. The collection includes the official British photographic record of the two world wars; the First World War collection includes
13936-451: The museum was awarded National Heritage Museum of the Year . In September 1992 the museum was the target of a Provisional Irish Republican Army attack against London tourist attractions. Two incendiary devices were found in a basement gallery, but were extinguished by staff before the arrival of the fire brigade , and caused only minor damage. The second stage of the redevelopment of
14070-409: The museum was closed to the public. The work included the conversion of what was previously the hospital's courtyard into a centrepiece Large Exhibits Gallery. This gallery featured a strengthened ground floor (to support the weight of very heavy exhibits), a first floor mezzanine and second storey viewing balcony. Into this space were placed tanks, artillery pieces, vehicles, ordnance and aircraft from
14204-415: The museum's galleries in 1955 as appearing "dingy and neglected [and in a] dismal state of decay" the museum's "numerous stunning exhibits" notwithstanding. In 1966 the museum's Southwark building was extended to provide collections storage and other facilities, the first major expansion since the museum had moved to the site. The development also included a purpose-built cinema. In 1967 the museum acquired
14338-439: The museum's photograph collection. The second floor housed the museum's library in its west wing, and in the east wing the map collection and stored pictures and drawings. This division of exhibits by service, and by civil or military activity, persisted until a wide-ranging redisplay of the galleries from the 1960s onwards. In September 1972 the building received Grade II listed building status. The original hospital building
14472-528: The museum, Imperial War Museum North , in Trafford , Greater Manchester . The following year, 2000, the final phase of the Southwark redevelopment was completed. The development included the installation of the museum's Holocaust Exhibition which was opened by the Queen on 6 June 2000. This was the first permanent exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust in a UK museum; its development had taken five years at
14606-512: The museum. To reflect the museum's Imperial remit the board included appointees of the governments of India , South Africa , Canada , Australia and New Zealand . While the Act was being debated, some Parliamentarians felt that the museum would perpetuate an undesirable war spirit and Lieutenant-Commander Joseph Kenworthy MP said that he would "refuse to vote a penny of public money to commemorate such suicidal madness of civilisation as that which
14740-540: The national " Access to Archives " program and online searching across collections is possible. In France, the French Archives Administration ( Service interministériel des Archives de France ) in the Ministry of Culture supervises the National Archives ( Archives nationales ), which possess 373 km (232 miles) of physical records as of 2020 (the total length of occupied shelves put next to each other), with original records going as far back as A.D. 625, and 74.75 terabytes (74,750 GB ) of electronic archives, as well as
14874-489: The national collection of modern firearms. The firearms collection includes a rifle used by T. E. Lawrence , and an automatic pistol owned by Winston Churchill . The ordnance collection includes artillery pieces that participated in notable battles, such as the Néry gun, a field gun that was used during the 1914 action at Néry , and equipment captured from enemy forces. The museum's vehicles collection includes Ole Bill ,
15008-668: The ones of Monte Cassino , Saint Gall , and Fulda . The records in these archives include manuscripts, papal records, local church records, photographs, oral histories, audiovisual materials, and architectural drawings. Most Protestant denominations have archives as well, including the Presbyterian Historical Society , the Moravian Church Archives, the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives,
15142-525: The papers and histories of specific people or places. These institutions may rely on grant funding from the government as well as private funds. Depending on the availability of funds, non-profit archives may be as small as the historical society in a rural town to as big as a state historical society that rivals a government archive. Users of this type of archive may vary as much as the institutions that hold it. Employees of non-profit archives may be professional archivists, paraprofessionals , or volunteers, as
15276-481: The present. They are the basic tools for historical research on this period. England, after 1066, developed archives and archival access methods. The Swiss developed archival systems after 1450. The first predecessors of archival science in the West are Jacob von Rammingen's manuals of 1571. and Baldassarre Bonifacio 's De Archivis libris singularis of 1632. Modern archival thinking has some roots dating back to
15410-426: The public and are only used by workers of the owner company, though some allow approved visitors by appointment. Business archives are concerned with maintaining the integrity of their company and are therefore selective about how their materials may be used. Government archives include those maintained by local and state governments as well as those maintained by the national (or federal) government. Anyone may use
15544-528: The public on 2 January 2013. The museum partially reopened on 29 July 2013. IWM London was formally reopened on 17 July 2014 by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge . From the 1970s onwards the Imperial War Museum began to expand onto other sites. The first branch, Imperial War Museum Duxford opened to the public on a regular basis in June 1976. HMS Belfast became a branch of the museum in 1978. The Churchill War Rooms opened in 1984, and Imperial War Museum North in 2002. The museum has occupied
15678-704: The record-keeping meaning of the term. The English word archive / ˈ ɑːr k aɪ v / is derived from the French archives (plural), and in turn from Latin archīum or archīvum , the romanized form of the Greek ἀρχεῖον ( arkheion ). The Greek term originally referred to the home or dwelling of the Archon , a ruler or chief magistrate , in which important official state documents were filed and interpreted; from there its meaning broadened to encompass such concepts as " town hall " and " public records ". The root of
15812-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title IWM . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IWM&oldid=1109065033 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
15946-541: The space. The walls of the gallery space are used as screens for the projection of an hourly audiovisual presentation, the Big Picture. The main gallery, described as cavernous and dramatic, includes objects such as a Russian T-34 tank, a United States Marine Corps AV-8A Harrier jet, and a British 13-pounder field gun which fired the British Army 's first shot of the First World War. The museum also hosts
16080-413: The then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , an admirer of Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill . Thatcher opened the War Rooms in April 1984. In 2003 a further suite of rooms, used as accommodation by Churchill, his wife and close associates, were added to the museum. The restoration of these rooms, which since the war had been stripped out and used for storage, cost £7.5 million. In 2005
16214-489: The various items which make up the IWM Collections. In some cases, there are images of the item, or contemporary photos, which can be shared and reused under a Creative Commons Licence . Archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over
16348-462: The village of Duxford in Cambridgeshire , is Britain's largest aviation museum . Duxford houses the museum's large exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft , military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels in seven main exhibitions buildings. The site also provides storage space for the museum's collections of film, photographs, documents, books and artefacts. The site accommodates a number of British Army regimental museums, including those of
16482-547: The web, as with the example of CPAN . Some archives defy categorization. There are tribal archives within the Native American nations in North America, and there are archives that exist within the papers of private individuals. Many museums keep archives in order to prove the provenance of their pieces. Any institution or persons wishing to keep their significant papers in an organized fashion that employs
16616-535: The work of photographers such as Ernest Brooks and John Warwick Brooke . The archive also holds 150,000 British aerial photographs from the First World War, the largest collection of its kind. The Second World War collection includes the work of photographers such as Bill Brandt , Cecil Beaton and Bert Hardy . Like the Film Archive, the Photograph Archive is an official repository under
16750-716: Was Charles ffoulkes , who had previously been curator of the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London . In July 1917 Mond made a visit to the Western Front in order to study how best to organise the museum's growing collection. While in France he met French government ministers, along with Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig , Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on
16884-545: Was Libeskind's first building in Britain. Libeskind's building, overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal at Salford Quays , was based on the concept of a globe shattered by conflict into shards and reassembled. These shards, representing earth, air and water, give the building its shape. Originally budgeted at £40 million, the museum was eventually completed for £28.5 million after anticipated funding
17018-574: Was changed to "HMS Belfast 1938" to reflect that one of the Royal Navy's new Type 26 frigates had been given the name HMS Belfast . The Cabinet War Rooms is an underground complex that served as a British government command centre throughout the Second World War. Located beneath the Treasury building in the Whitehall area of Westminster , the facilities became operational in 1939 and were in constant use until their abandonment in August 1945 after
17152-427: Was destroyed. While closed to the public the museum's building was used for a variety of purposes connected to the war effort, such as a repair garage for government motor vehicles, a centre for Air Raid Precautions civil defence lectures and a fire fighting training school. In October 1945 the museum mounted a temporary exhibition, the first since the end of the war in August, which showcased technologies developed by
17286-480: Was hoped to make the museum so complete that every one who took part in the war, however obscurely, would find therein an example or illustration of the sacrifice he or she made" and that the museum "was not a monument of military glory, but a record of toil and sacrifice". Shortly afterwards the Imperial War Museum Act 1920 was passed and established a board of trustees to oversee the governance of
17420-432: Was not forthcoming. The museum was funded by local, national and European development agencies, by private donations and by Peel Holdings , a local transport and property company which contributed £12.5 million. The museum's first floor main gallery space houses the permanent exhibitions. These consist of a chronological display which runs around the gallery's 200m perimeter and six thematic displays in "silos" within
17554-539: Was practical. In 1971 the government decided against preservation, prompting the formation of the private HMS Belfast Trust to campaign for her to be saved for the nation. The Trust was successful in its efforts, and the government transferred the ship to the Trust in July 1971. Brought to London, she was moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge in the Pool of London . Opened to the public in October 1971 Belfast became
17688-479: Was renamed the Churchill War Rooms in 2010. The Imperial War Museum North was opened in Trafford , Greater Manchester , in 2002. It was the first branch of the museum outside southeast England, and the first to be purpose-built as a museum. Designed by architect Daniel Libeskind , with Manchester-based architects Leach Rhodes Walker providing implementation services, The Imperial War Museum North
17822-542: Was shown in the late War". On the August Bank Holiday 1920, the first public holiday since the museum's opening, 94,179 visitors were received, and by November 1921, 2,290,719 had visited the museum. In 1924 the museum moved to the Imperial Institute building (demolished in the 1950s and 1960s to make way for Imperial College ) in South Kensington. While this location was more central and in
17956-459: Was substantially altered in 1835 by architect Sydney Smirke . In order to provide more space, he added blocks at either end of the frontage, and galleried wings on either side of the central portion. He also added a small single-storey lodge, still in existence, at the Lambeth Road gate. Later, between 1844 and 1846, the central cupola was replaced with a copper-clad dome in order to expand
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