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From 'Somewhere in France' to Somewhere in the Collections: Recovering Soldier Art at the Canadian War Museum Item Info

Works of art and warfare have a long and deeply entwined history. This is especially true in Canada where war art has played a role in nation-building and identity formation. Official Canadian war art, commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund and the Canadian War Records during the First and Second World Wars respectively, has often been at the centre of this history, obscuring works created by individual soldiers. This dissertation discusses unofficial soldier art that has been “hidden in plain sight” in the George Metcalf Archival Collection, the Canadian War Museum’s textual archives. It explores the different kinds of soldier art to be found there, including examples that adorn the pages of letters, diaries, military training course notebooks, Great War nursing sisters’ autograph books, and Second World War POW wartime log books. The war stories this soldier art tells are personal, intimate, complex, and, at times, funny and heart wrenching. They offer us a glimpse into the experiences of ordinary Canadians who lived through the World Wars. This study argues that a national high culture bias, the quirks of the institutional histories of three Canadian national cultural institutions, the interests of professionalizing public and academic history fields, and especially the Canadian War Museum’s archival cataloguing best practices, account for soldier art having been overlooked. The vastness and variety of soldier art that exists in the textual archives at the Canadian War Museum deserves recognition, reconsideration, and, ultimately, reclassification in the catalogue record, thereby making it visible to researchers and the general public. To do this, we must engage with soldier art as art, artefact, and historical document. The implications of this research reach farther than the Canadian War Museum’s collections alone. This case study can (and should) be applied to other cultural institutions, large and small, nationally and internationally.

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Title:
From 'Somewhere in France' to Somewhere in the Collections: Recovering Soldier Art at the Canadian War Museum
Creator:
Pagnotta, Sarafina
Date Created:
2024
Degree Awarded:
Doctor of Philosophy
Subjects:
Museum techniques Canada -- History Art and history
Geographical Focus:
Canada
Supporting Materials:
n/a
Description:
Works of art and warfare have a long and deeply entwined history. This is especially true in Canada where war art has played a role in nation-building and identity formation. Official Canadian war art, commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund and the Canadian War Records during the First and Second World Wars respectively, has often been at the centre of this history, obscuring works created by individual soldiers. This dissertation discusses unofficial soldier art that has been “hidden in plain sight” in the George Metcalf Archival Collection, the Canadian War Museum’s textual archives. It explores the different kinds of soldier art to be found there, including examples that adorn the pages of letters, diaries, military training course notebooks, Great War nursing sisters’ autograph books, and Second World War POW wartime log books. The war stories this soldier art tells are personal, intimate, complex, and, at times, funny and heart wrenching. They offer us a glimpse into the experiences of ordinary Canadians who lived through the World Wars. This study argues that a national high culture bias, the quirks of the institutional histories of three Canadian national cultural institutions, the interests of professionalizing public and academic history fields, and especially the Canadian War Museum’s archival cataloguing best practices, account for soldier art having been overlooked. The vastness and variety of soldier art that exists in the textual archives at the Canadian War Museum deserves recognition, reconsideration, and, ultimately, reclassification in the catalogue record, thereby making it visible to researchers and the general public. To do this, we must engage with soldier art as art, artefact, and historical document. The implications of this research reach farther than the Canadian War Museum’s collections alone. This case study can (and should) be applied to other cultural institutions, large and small, nationally and internationally.
Source
Preferred Citation:
Pagnotta, Sarafina. From 'Somewhere in France' to Somewhere in the Collections: Recovering Soldier Art at the Canadian War Museum. 2024. Carleton University, Doctor of Philosophy.
Reference Link:
https://cuhistory.github.io/grads/items/hist_346.html
Rights
Rights:
Copyright the author, all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
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