Image by Elizabeth Thomsen via Flickr
Europeana Collections 1914-1918 will create by 2014 – the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War – a substantial digital collection of material from national libraries and other partners from eight countries that found themselves on different sides of the historic conflict. See: www.europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu
The three-year project will make over 400,000 WWI sources publicly and freely available online for the first time – content that is often rare and highly fragile because of the deteriorating quality of the paper it was produced on and generally only accessible in reading rooms.
The digital collection will span the full range of national library collections including books, newspapers, trench journals, maps, music sheets, children’s literature, photographs, posters, pamphlets, propaganda leaflets, original art, religious works, medals and coins.
This material will highlight the importance of the First World War for a common European identity and reflect the experiences of people from different ethnic, linguistic, political, social and religious communities on all sides of the conflict, including those opposed to the war. It will permit new interpretations of history that go far beyond traditional military history and include artistic and cultural reinterpretation of the experiences of 1914-1918.
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