Extension Activities

The activities below can be completed if students want more practice analyzing memorials, monuments, historical websites, and materials related to memorials and the Great War. 

Now that students have completed the two activities above they can now explore the items section of this exhibit to learn more about The Great War and historical memory. 

THE POLITICS OF WAR MEMORALIZATION:

Students should consider how nations have chosen to commemorate the war by analyzing memorials and museums included in the geolocation map of this website as well as deriving inspiration and ideas from their past knowledge of world war I or research a specific nation in question. Look back at previous monuments and visit the websites from the first activity. How were the museums or memorials different? What do they attempt to convey? How have they used religious symbols or allegories to convey their message or pay respect to the dead? 

By contrasting memorials, students will delve into the politics surrounding memorialization and learn more about each nations background as well as events that occurred before, during, and after the war that may have influenced a nations' decision to create or not create a memorial and if the meaning of the memorial changed over time. 

Students should ask specific questions when contrasting war memorials. For example, why was WWI a part of the Welsh collective memory but not with Germany? How did events after the war shape Germany's desire and actions to commemorate the Great War? How did being an island nation influence The United Kingdom's ideas of war memorialization? 

Directions for students:

1. Review the National WWI Museum and Memorial and the Imperial War Museum. Answer historical questions such as how are the museums different in how they convey the Great War? 

2. Study their architecture. How does their structure reveal information and ideas behind the nation that chose to construct them? Does the use of religious symbols change how you view the memorial's purpose? Does it shed light on a nations' psyche or provide a window into the mind of its citizens?

3. Open a new tab on your computer and search using quotation marks to read more about the history of a nation that interests you that fought in the Great War. Analyze its history and consider how its past has contributed towards its construction of WWI Memorials. For example, how did Germany's ideas of the war or its memorialization efforts change after 1933 when Adolf Hitler rose to power? What does the Imperial War Museum convey about British patriotism?

4. Repeat steps 1-3 with the second chosen museum from the first activity. How are the two museums different? Is their argument different? How do they choose to convey information? 

5. Discuss your ideas with one other partner. Have your thoughts and ideas on war memorialization, specifically, the Great War, changed since the first day? How do architecture and politics change how nations remember and commemorate the war?

6. Get together in groups to discuss your ideas and observations. For classes at 30 students and under get into groups of 3-5 students depending on class size and compare notes of your ideas and observations. What have you learned? Have other students lived or visited nations in question? Ask them their experiences and how do they compare to a student from the US or UK? Did growing up in nations that fought in the war since the beginning change their ideas and bring a new perspective to how they study and discuss the Great War? Switch groups every twenty minutes depending on the length of the class. Have students move and discuss ideas with as many students as possible before the end of class. 

7. Come back into a larger group and pay attention to your professor as they discuss war memorialization and the politics behind how and why nations decide to remember the Great War. 

8. Research a specific nation and read a book or journal article from your library. Discuss with a partner your ideas and experiences in the next class. 

Directions for Professors:

1. Familiarize yourselves with the politics of war memorialization. Look back into a specific nation's context through events before, during, and after the Great War. How might a nation's past alter how and why they choose to create, or not create memorials to wartime sacrifice? 

2. Think about a nation's past and how they created memorials. For example, from the perspective of Great Britain, is the war one of sacrifice, patriotism, and victory, defeat and shame, technology or military strategy, colonialism or imperialism? How do narratives of memorials convey different ideas over how and why the war was fought? 

Ask your students to consider these themes and questions as they explore memorials. 

SYMBOLS & ALLEGORIES

Nations such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have utilized symbols and allegories in how they choose to commemorate the Great War. Compare and contrast what you know from taking a virtual field trip through the two main websites on the previous page. How have the two nations chosen to use symbols to illustrate and convey their purpose to the general public? 

This activity works best as a take-home assignment. Have students come in the next class period and discuss their ideas and observations with the class. 

Directions for students:

1. Revisit the National WWI Museum and Memorial website. Students should ask historical questions such as why did a nation use symbols and allegories when commemorating the Great War? How did the nation's past influence what they chose to remember and why they chose to forget or omit certain aspects of history? 

2. Consider this excerpt from the National World War I Museum about symbols: "Two Assyrian Sphinxes guard the south entrance of the Liberty Memorial. “Memory” faces east toward the battlefields of France, shielding its eyes from the horrors of war. “Future” faces west, shielding its eyes from an unknown future." 

How did the National World War I Museum use symbols to convey how the United States has decided to commemorate the war? How do the sphinxes tie into the museum's broader message? What other examples of symbols and allegories have you found through the website?

3. Repeat steps 1-2 with the Imperial War Museum-London website. 

4. Compare and contrast the two websites and the broader museum's use of symbols and allegories. How do they help convey each museum's message? How did the use of symbols and allegories change how a nation commemorated the war?

The next class:

5. Talk with one other partner about your ideas, emotions, and what you took away from your experiences so far. How has the above exercise allowed you to think deeper and ask historical questions? Has the exercise changed how you think about a museum's purpose and how specific nations remember the Great War?

6.  Discuss what you think certain symbols mean and what museums or memorials are conveying through symbols? Why did a specific nation choose to include or exclude symbols or allegories from its memorials?

7. Regroup as one class and have a dialogue with your teacher to inquire further about symbols and allegories and listen to their interpretations on the meaning behind symbols and how nations have used them in memorials. Write 500 words about the discussion and the class so far. Do you agree with your teacher's analysis? What different perspectives can you provide?

8. End class by asking your teacher a question that you had from the activity. Did their insight and ideas change your perspective?

The information from step 2 above is provided by the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, MO., and is located at Elements of the Museum and Memorial.©2021 NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL.