Centenary of the Great War: the documentation of collection days of family stories and memories is online
Museo del Risorgimento e della Resistenza in Vicenza is participating in the “Europeana 1914-1918” project. Along with Fondazione del Museo Storico del Trentino, the Museo di Villa Guiccioli in Vicenza has been selected by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities as a partner to coordinate the campaign to collect “digital” memories of the Great War.
After extensive selection, the results of the collection days of Great War objects held in Italy in recent months for the "Europeana 1914-1918" project have been published on the Europeana 1914-1918 website. The documents presented during the collection day at Forte Monte Maso last May have been made available online and are accessible to anyone who wishes to explore the objects and stories by visiting the following link:
Europeana is an innovative web portal that provides access to the digital resources of European museums, libraries, and archives. The "1914-1918, storie di famiglia” [1914-1918, Family Stories] project was launched in Germany in 2011 with the aim of collecting memories and memorabilia from families involved in the war: not only the stories and objects of soldiers at the front, but also those of civilians. The project currently involves a dozen European countries, including Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Ireland. Since 2012, a major campaign has been underway to collect documents and testimonies dating back to the conflict. The aim is to create – in preparation for the centenary celebrations – a digital archive of the First World War, where the stories of those who experienced the war as soldiers and civilians are recovered, preserved, and made available online.
Anyone with a story to tell or a family testimony related to the conflict can share it by adding it to the vast digital archive, which has so far collected 2,500 stories and 50,000 digital files reproducing family objects belonging to the protagonists of the Great War. For this purpose, collection days have been organized throughout Europe.
One of the three collection days in Italy took place in 2013 at Forte Monte Maso di Valli del Pasubio (on the slopes of Mount Pasubio). Members of the public brought letters, diaries, postcards, photographs, and war memorabilia, which were photographed and scanned by staff, uploaded to the Europeana portal, and then returned to their owners. For information: www.europeana1914-1918.eu