Collecting Womena??s Memories: the Australian War Memorial, the next of kin and Great War soldiersa?? diaries and letters as objects of memory in the 1920s and 1930s

摘要

Historians typically use soldiersa?? diaries and letters to validate battlefield experiences. In this article the author interrupts that seamless journey from the battlefield to the archive to the history book, and treats soldiersa?? diaries and letters not as texts but objects of memory, as did bereaved relatives during and after the Great War in Australia. Significantly, it was women who tended to come into possession of dead soldiersa?? diaries and letters, as they were more often than not the nominated next of kin. Taking as a casea??study a program to collect Great War soldiersa?? diaries and letters undertaken by the Australian War Memorial in the 1920s and 1930s, the author explores aspects of the gendered nature of collecting: womena??s role in the generational transmission of memory, and their link between personal and national memory, and household/family and archive/institution. This article also invites reconsideration about the nature of historical evidence: are diaries and letters solely texts whose linguistic signs are a??evidence of experiencea?? or are they simultaneously material artefacts that offer fresh understandings of womena??s lives?View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_click":true}; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09612020903444635