As a Poppy-Flooded Armistice Day Ends, a Major WWI Library May Close
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) library in London is reportedly under threat as the institution faces a major budget cut.
Armistice Day just passed in this year marking the centenary of the start of World War I, and now there’s news a major public resource on that history may close.
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) library in London is reportedly under threat as the institution faces a major budget cut. As the BBC stated, the Prospect trade union “said a £4M [~$6.28M] cut in annual government funding left the institution facing the closure of the library and the loss of 80 jobs.” An online petition from the union — garnering 5,545 names as of this writing — further lists that the museum “has drawn up proposals” to shutter the library and “dispose of the majority of its collection,” reduce education services, “cut 60–80 jobs,” and close the “Explore History” facility.
Meanwhile, IWM confirmed restructuring and the need to reduce expenditures by £4 million in a statement, if not the exact details of what may be eliminated. According to the Telegraph, a spokesperson said they’ve entered a “consultation period” and the museum is “working closely with those who may be affected by the change proposals and will continue to do so until the end of the year.” Decisions will, per the statement, not happen until the beginning of 2015.
The timing of the news this month isn’t just bad alongside Armistice Day, it also follows major money going into other aspects of the museum. Just this July, the London base of the IWM reopened in its imposing home that once housed the infamous Bedlam mental hospital, following a $64 million revamp project. And the redesigned institution was central to the November 11 commemorations.
The Wall Street Journal, in an article that proclaimed the institution “A Museum Fit for Remembrance Day,” noted attendance has over doubled to around 8,000 visitors a day since the reopening. It will also be the future permanent home for part of the striking installation of 888,246 ceramic poppies that flooded the Tower of London moat for the 2014 Armistice Day.
Those scarlet, sculpted flowers caused a frenzy of visual attention in commemoration of World War I, and it’s unfortunate there is not the same attention to historic resources preserving the war’s history. The publicly accessible library dates to 1917, with now over 600,000 items including books, photographs, art, sound, and video concentrated on British military history from 1914 forward (you can find around 90,000 of them digitized online). It would be disheartening if spectacle, no matter how moving, continues to drown out the less flashy reminders of loss as the centenary years continue through November 11, 1918, the centennial of the war’s conclusion.
h/t Melville House
