Veterans, Families, Museums and Mementos

Dr Ann-Marie Foster will discuss the relationships between museums, their objects and war.

When we look at items on display in military museums, how often do we wonder how they got there? Who donated them? And why?

After the First World War, people wanted to make sure that their contribution, or that of a loved one, was remembered. Focusing on three key moments from the last 100 years, Dr Ann-Marie Foster will reveal a continued desire for people to mark their families’ wartime experience and ensure that objects and ephemera representing this were kept safe in museum collections.

About the guide

Ann-Marie Foster

Dr Ann-Marie Foster is a historian of modern Britain, with expertise in the First World War, ephemera and museums. She is a Chancellor’s Fellow at Robert Gordon University and is leading the project ‘Accessible Pasts, Equitable Futures’ as an AHRC ECR Fellow in Cultural and Heritage Institutions, based at Imperial War Museums.