Re-making Londoners: Models of a Healthy Society in the Nation's Capital, 1918-1939
Centre for Metropolitan History: 13 November 2002

The creation of a healthy society was, perhaps, the dominant concern of social reformers in the first half of the twentieth century and many historians have considered the legislative processes through which such a society was produced. What have, hitherto, been little studied, are the locations in which the ideolgies of a healthy society were produced, especially in the inter-war decades. It is the aim of this workshop, using London as a case study, to investigate how social reformers developed particular models, practices and environments of reform in order to re-make London's population into a race of healthy, active and educated citizens between the end of the Great War in 1918 and the declaration of the Second World War in September 1939.

Re-Writing the Past
Institute of Historical Research: 3rd-5th July 2002

"This year sees the fiftieth anniversary of Past and Present and one of the purposes of the seventy-first Anglo-American Conference is to mark and to celebrate this half-century. First published in February 1952, Past and Present has long been recognised as one of the foremost historical journals in the English-speaking world. From the very beginning, it sought to encompass the whole of human history, to draw its contributors from around the globe, to encourage controversy and disagreement, to welcome approaches and contributions provided by other disciplines, and to address large issues and broad themes in prose that was both scholarly and accessible.

But as befits a journal which has constantly sought to stress the interconnectedness of the past and present, and to identify and stimulate new approaches to the study of history, this anniversary conference will be primarily concerned with a timely and substantive task: to ask how and why and where and by whom the past has been – and still is – regularly re-written.

This continual re-writing is partly because of the dynamic inherent in the scholarly process; but it is also because of broader changes and specific imperatives in politics, society and culture. Under the general heading of ‘Re-Writing the Past’, the conference will explore such themes as: the liquidation of the past; the invention and dis-invention of tradition; the politics of historiographical revision; history as myth, memory and identity; the creation and contestation of historical epochs and periods; competing versions of the same past; history as propaganda and history as protest; history as orthodoxy and history as heresy; globalisation, IT and world history."

Launch Event: Centre for the History of Women's Education
King Alfred's College: 7th June 2002

"The Centre provides a forum for research into the gendered nature of educational provision, practice and thought in order to provide a sound evidence base for policy and practice in respect of education for women and girls. The Centre takes a broad cultural definition of Education: one which transcends schooling to encompass learning and teaching (formal and informal) at any phase of the life-cycle, in any setting or historical period, including the recent past."

I presented a short paper on 'informal education', the representation of men/women in VD posters.

War and The Media: The Changing Context of Reportage and Propaganda in The Twentieth Century
University of Kent @ Canterbury : 30th August - 4th September 2001

"This is the first major international conference on the impact of the media on war. Enormous social and technological changes have radically changed our lives over the past 150 years. The aim of the conference is to analyse how these developments have altered the relationships between politicians, the military and the media in the shaping of policies that may lead to conflict and the manner. The complex relationship between propaganda and censorship and the effect of the media on the formation of public opinion together with journalistic ethics and motives are also probed."

Associated Publication: Connelly, M., & Welch, D. (eds), War and the Media: Reportage and Propaganda, I.B. Tauris, 2004

Beyond the Museum: Working with Collections in the Digital Age
Humanities Computing Unit, University of Oxford: 20th April 2001

"Is the new digital age the answer to the prayers of museums, archives, and libraries? Does it free up collections allowing unprecedented access facilities for scholars and the public? Or is it all built on a house of cards? Do the new technologies really offer us anything, and are they sidetracking the holders of the nation's heritage into areas that really have unproven benefits? Is funding being diverted away from more needy services? Can the museum, or similar institution, actually survive in such a fast-changing culture?"

Health Promotion in Historical Context
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, UEA, 27th - 28th April 2001

Presentations Included:

• 'Statistical Images of Diseases in Health Exhibitions in Britain in the 1930s'
• '"No One Receiving?' The Audience for Health Education Films, 1919-48'
• 'Health Promotion and the Transformation of Chronic Diseases after the Second World War (1945-1955)'
• 'The Cycle of Conflict, the Historic Development of the Public Health and Health Promotion Movements'

Aspects of Gender in Contemporary Britain
Institute of Contemporary British History, 10th-12th July, 2000

"The conference aims to bring together contemporary historians as well as researchersin related fields including cultural studies, sociology and social anthropology, to explore aspects of gender history which have been neglected in previous research."

Anglo-American 'War and Peace'
Institute of Historical Research, 5th-7th July, 2000

Seminars Attended: 'Health and Education'; 'Representing War' 'and 'Cold War Culture'

Public History Now
Public History Group, Ruskin College, Oxford, 20th May, 2000

'Nostalgia and the Visual Image: The memory of propaganda posters of the Second World War.'

ABSTRACT: This paper will explore the place that Second World War Home Front posters have in popular memory, with a particular focus upon the nostalgia industry that has grown up around them.

There are countless objects that can be purchased adorned with images and slogans from wartime posters: not only postcards and reproduction posters, but mugs, key rings, T-shirts, chocolate bars, playing cards, and many others. Money would not be spent producing such objects unless it was felt there was a market for them, and such objects have been produced by the Imperial War Museum and the Public Record Office, amongst others, for many years, in the knowledge that they will sell.

The paper will consider why such products do sell, with their appeal based not only upon their immediate visual impact, [Footnote 1] often the reason they were successful in the first place, but upon their status as social and historical documents, and as a reminder of a past, mythical or otherwise. Many people remember the posters from the war, as can be illustrated by replies received from a questionnaire distributed, in 1997-9, as part of the PhD project.

Posters often trigger memories, in particular causing people become nostalgic about, for instance, 'the Blitz spirit'. This has largely been deemed a myth, [Footnote 2] and it will be interesting to consider how far such a 'spirit' was propagated through the war posters, and how far the posters have contributed to such a 'myth'. Yet, memories of war posters are not restricted to those who can remember the war, people of all generations can list many war poster slogans, such as 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'. There are two probable factors which account for this: many slogans have become tied up with the mythology of war; and war posters are used extensively as illustration in both children's and populist 'coffee table' books, where the poster is used to get across a point pictorially, as was the original purpose.

The paper will take into account the original purpose of propaganda and advertising posters, designed to be ephemeral, but also memorable. It will attempt to define what factors determine if a poster can be deemed a 'success', especially from a later point in time. The paper will also briefly reflect upon how changes in history have enabled the poster to be considered as a historical source.

1 Gleeson, J. Collecting Prints and Posters, 1997, p92
2 Calder, A. The Myth of the Blitz, 1991

With Gary Peatling 'Appeasement and public history now and in the future'.

The day was interesting and well attended, with a very friendly atmosphere. The Paper Presented

Research Day: National Identities
King Alfred's, Winchester, September 21st, 1999

This was a very successful, well attended event. Short papers were given by a student and tutor from each research centre on the common theme of national identities.

The day included a paper given by myself, entitled 'World War II Propaganda and the Image of Britain'. Once a brief definition of propaganda and the job of the poster had been established, three posters from the First World War were considered, demonstrating the belief that most appealed to either a mythical past, a sense of good sportsmanship, or obedience to a sense of authority. The Second World War was even more of a 'total war' than the First had been, and those involved needed to know that they were not only fighting AGAINST something, but also FOR it. The main focus of the paper was then upon two posters 'Your Britain, Fight for it Now', produced in 1942, around the time of the Beveridge Report. On the one hand we saw the nostalgic image, depicted by Frank Newbould, of a pastoral and rural Britain, which encourages effort in order to maintain perceived past traditions, whilst Abram Games depicted an urban image as an image of change for a better Britain, a real fight for the future.

1940s Society: WW2 Posters
The 1940s Society, 25th June, 1999

"In June, Rebecca Lewis spoke to us on the subject of British Homefront Posters of WW2. Rebecca is very knowledgeable about her subject and spoke not only on the design of the posters but also on the political motivations behind them. The talk was illustrated by a large number of slides and we certainly came away with a better understanding of the subject."

Ian Bayley, The 1940s Society

The Art of Propaganda
Duxford, IWM, 5th June, 1999

An interesting day through which four presentations were given on the subjects of propaganda as shown through film, posters , Nazi radio, and black propaganda.

'Posters: Persuasion and Subversion'
V&A, 12th-13th June, 1998

The effectiveness of the poster as a publicity medium and the pervasiveness of the poster image were examined in the context of developments in 20th century graphic communication. The conference examined the history of the poster from the 'artistic' posters of the late 19th century, to the large-scale billboard campaigns of the modern day, which are an inescapable feature of the modern landscape.

See Forthcoming Events