Rising above the propaganda: German medallic art in Britain (1914–1919)

During the First World War museums in Britain faced numerous challenges to their collecting and display strategies. Many museums were temporarily closed owing to a cut in government grant aid, which proved severely restrictive to available display space and caused considerable controversy, both in Britain and in Europe. In Vienna, for example, the Neue Freie Presse said that these closures amounted to a “declaration of moral bankruptcy.” Noting that visitor numbers had fallen considerably even prior to their closure, the Presse sarcastically observed that it would be “interesting to know how large a percentage of visitors to those institutions in normal times are Germans and Austrians.” Museums in the provinces were affected less than those in London, where the list of temporary closures included the British Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Wallace Collection, Guildhall library and art gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Gallery, and Museum of London. No UK museum is thought to have suffered a direct hit by German bombs during the First World War. However, the advent of Zeppelin air-raids and he declaration by the Kaiser in 1915 that no target was off-limits, convinced institutions that their collections were vulnerable if they remained in situ. This caused many museums to evacuate their collections into basements or off-site storage, while a number of now-empty galleries were requisitioned by the government for use as office and storage space. There was also a decline in staffing levels, as key curatorial staff either volunteered or were conscripted into military service. Despite these difficulties museums made their best efforts to continue to expand their collections, and a handful of institutions targeted the acquisition of German commemorative medals, as detailed in this chapter.