A project led by the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford is looking for contributions to a free online archive of family stories, anecdotes, memories, and digitized objects relating to people’s experiences of the Second World War.
Their Finest Hour, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, aims to collect and digitally archive the everyday stories and objects of the Second World War in order to preserve these memories and make them freely available to the public.
Led by Dr Stuart Lee of the Faculty of English, the project team will:
Run a series of collection events at major museums, libraries, and heritage centres across the UK and encourage people to bring war-related stories and materials – letters, photos, diaries, memorabilia, or just stories handed down from family members – for digitization;
- Capture people’s thoughts and reactions to the way the war is remembered today;
- Train an army of volunteers and support them in running their own collection events in village halls, community centres, faith centres, schools, colleges, and elsewhere;
- Offer an online website to allow people to upload their objects and/or stories and memories remotely;
- Preserve all the collected stories and objects in a free-to-use online archive that will be launched on 6 June 2024, the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The team is especially interested in collecting contributions from people from underrepresented backgrounds. Working with the Burma Star Memorial Fund, the Gurkha Museum, the Sikh Pioneers and Light infantry Association, and ‘We Shall Tell Their Story’, the project aims to increase the diversity of people benefiting from Second World War heritage.
You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3Bim6GS.