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Quick March! The Children of World War I

Quick March! The Children of World War I

A personal look at children’s lives during the First World War.

PAST EXHIBITIONExhibition
Saturday 16 March 2019 to Sunday 13 October 2019
Admission: Free

Location

Quick March! The Children of World War I


Join us for an intimate, personal look at children’s lives during the First World War. Built around a remarkable collection of family correspondence, Quick March! The children of World War I chronicles the lives, loves and losses of children whose relatives served on the Front. As young adults, these children went on to serve in the Second World War, just 20 years after the jubilation of the peace year in 1919.
 

Oil painting showing old man and young boy looking at a map. A woman turns away from them weeping.
Where Daddy Fell
1915
Antonio Dattilo Rubbo
Digital ID: 
None
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A child's pencil drawing of soldiers marching in a line across the top of yellowed page, with a torn bottom.
Ink and pencil drawing of soldiers
1918
Frank Burrowes
Digital ID: 
a4850137
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Photograph of 9 long strips of fabric holding hundreds of colourful badges.
Badges from button day appeals in Australia, and military insignia
ca 1914–50
Digital ID: 
a9559001
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Black and white photograph of children dressed up in nurses and medics posing for the camera. A mock stretcher stands in the middle of the group.
Wingham Red Cross Day fancy dress group
1917
A Cavalchini
Digital ID: 
bcp_01933u
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About this item: 

NSW SYLLABUS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM

History - Stage 5 World War I

Peace flag
1919
Digital ID: 
a7475001
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Meet the curator

Photographic portrait of a smiling blonde woman wearing a white jacket.

Elise Edmonds

Elise is a senior curator at the State Library of New South Wales. With a background in Australian history and Museum Studies, Elise has worked with the Library’s maps, pictures and manuscript collections; acquiring, writing and promoting these to a variety of audiences. In 2009 she received a staff fellowship to research and scope the Library’s First World War collections. This led to curating several exhibitions highlighting the Library’s nationally significant First World War collections; Life Interrupted: personal diaries from World War I in 2014 and Colour in Darkness: images from the First World War in 2016.

Quick march! The children of World War I

To mark the centenary of the peace year, 1919, we take an intimate look at the lives of children during the ‘war to end all wars’.

Personal diaries and letters from the First World War

A rich and significant collection of personal diaries and letters written by those who served in World War I.

Colour in darkness: hand-coloured photographs from World War I

In the early 1920s, an exhibition of war photographs toured Australia, attracting crowds and enthusiastic reviews. Many of the photographs had been taken by Australian servicemen and were enlarged and coloured at Colarts Studios.

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