The multiple roles of battlefield war museums: a study at Fromelles and Passchendaele

ABSTRACT Today’s war museums are large institutions that cater to a broad range of people and provide a number of functions. In recent years, activities and displays relating to the notion of ‘edutainment’ have been incorporated into their offerings. On the Great War battlefields of Europe, the war museums tend to address specific battles that were fought in the immediate area, and traditionally they attracted visitors with a familial or national connection to the site. An on-site survey at two battlefield war museums found that remembrance remains a primary function, but overall, visitors did not support the museums as places for leisure experiences. Personal connections, both familial and national, were important, and while a broader European connection was strongly supported, it was not unique to any particular group. Peace and anti-war appeared to be seen as distinct elements. The study reinforces previous work in the field that argues personal connection provides the initial motivation for visitation.

[1]  Caroline Winter.  Social memory and battle names: Exploring links between travel, memory and the media , 2016 .

[2]  Martin Hurcombe.  Introduction: The Great War in cultural memory , 2015 .

[3]  M. Jansen-Verbeke,et al.  Memoryscapes of the Great War (1914-1918): A paradigm shift in tourism research on war heritage , 2015 .

[4]  Stephen Miles.  Battlefield sites as dark tourism attractions: an analysis of experience , 2014 .

[5]  Dominique Poulot.  Museums and History in Contemporary France , 2012 .

[6]  Kenneth F. Hyde,et al.  Motives for a secular pilgrimage to the Gallipoli battlefields. , 2011 .

[7]  N. Morgan,et al.  Visiting the trenches: Exploring meanings and motivations in battlefield tourism , 2011 .

[8]  H. McDonald.  Understanding the antecedents to public interest and engagement with heritage , 2011 .

[9]  John L. Hall,et al.  An empirical analysis of attendance at a commemorative event: Anzac Day at Gallipoli. , 2010 .

[10]  Tony Kent,et al.  The role of the museum shop in extending the visitor experience , 2010 .

[11]  T. Walter.  Dark tourism: mediating between the dead and the living , 2009 .

[12]  John Hutchinson.  Warfare and the Sacralisation of Nations: The Meanings, Rituals and Politics of National Remembrance , 2009 .

[13]  Yaniv Poria,et al.  Visitors' Preferences for Interpretation at Heritage Sites , 2009 .

[14]  Martin Evans.  Opening up the battlefield: War studies and the cultural turn , 2007 .

[15]  James E. Sefton,et al.  Remembering War: The Great War between Memory and History in the Twentieth Century , 2007 .

[16]  J. Henderson.  Remembering the Second World War in Singapore: Wartime Heritage as a Visitor Attraction , 2007 .

[17]  Y. Poria,et al.  Tourist Perceptions: Personal vs. Non-Personal , 2006 .

[18]  Jennifer Iles.  Recalling the Ghosts of War: Performing Tourism on the Battlefields of the Western Front , 2006 .

[19]  John B. Gatewood,et al.  Battlefield pilgrims at Gettysburg National Military Park , 2004 .

[20]  Andrew Whitmarsh.  "We Will Remember Them" Memory and Commemoration in War Museums , 2001 .

[21]  M. Foley,et al.  Museums as Leisure , 2000 .

[22]  A. Seaton.  “Another Weekend Away Looking for Dead Bodies…”: Battlefield Tourism on the Somme and in Flanders , 2000 .

[23]  M. Foley,et al.  Interpretation of the Unimaginable: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., and “Dark Tourism” , 1999 .

[24]  K. Inglis,et al.  Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape , 1998 .

[25]  David Wharton Lloyd,et al.  Battlefield Tourism: Pilgrimage and the Commemoration of the Great War in Britain, Australia and Canada, 1919-1939 , 1998 .

[26]  Mandy S. Morris.  Gardens 'for Ever England': Landscape, Identity and the First World War British Cemeteries On the Western Front , 1997 .

[27]  J. Lawrence.  Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: the Great War in European Cultural History , 1997 .

[28]  R. Prior,et al.  Passchendaele: The Untold Story , 1996 .

[29]  Michael J. Heffernan,et al.  For Ever England: the Western Front and the Politics of Remembrance in Britain , 1995 .

[30]  Daniel J. Sherman.  Objects of Memory: History and Narrative in French War Museums , 1995 .

[31]  Thomas W. Laqueur,et al.  CHAPTER VIII. Memory and Naming in the Great War , 1994 .

[32]  Robert F. DeVellis,et al.  Scale Development: Theory and Applications. , 1992 .

[33]  G. Kavanagh.  Museum as Memorial: The Origins of the Imperial War Museum , 1988 .

[34]  Diana Adler,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 2016 .

[35]  J. Winter.  Museums and the Representation of War , 2012 .

[36]  M. V. Alstein.  The Great War Remembered: Commemoration and Peace in Flanders Fields , 2011 .

[37]  R. Sharpley,et al.  The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism , 2009 .

[38]  Jay Winter,et al.  Remembering war : the Great War between memory and history in the twentieth century , 2006 .

[39]  D. Todman.  The Great War , 2005 .

[40]  D. Timothy.  Tourism and the personal heritage experience , 1997 .