Putting Art on the Map at the British Postal Museum and Archive

Monday 10 February 2014 saw Historypin and the Putting Art on the Map team down at the British Postal Museum and Archive at Mount Pleasant in London. The theme of the event was Postal communications and Telecommunications in the First World War.

After a great introduction to the IWM collections by Dr Alice Strickland and an introduction to the BPMA’s collections by Gavin McGuffie, the group got down to the business of choosing one of the 20 brilliant artworks selected for this event from both Imperial War Museums’ and British Postal Museum and Archive collections. With subject matters as wide ranging as postal sorting, radio telegraphy, valve testing right through to heliography the event was sure to be an interesting one.

Using the original resources held within the archive and museum including maps, archive documents and photographs along side computers hooked up to the internet the team began detailing some fascinating insights into the individual art works. We’ve located around 15 of the 20 images in the selection more accurately and there were some amazing research skills displayed by the group.

Army Post Office 3, Boulogne, 1919 by Sir John Lavery (RA) (RSA)

This work by Sir John Lavery peaked the interest of those within the postal heritage world for its striking resemblance to the images within the BPMA’s own collections of Army Letter Office No.2, Regents Park in 1918. The resemblance of structure led to a conversation about whether these temporary depots were actually laid out as a standard, repeatable structure. The system of sorting was identified as quite standard and using the IWM’s new zoom tool the group identified that the mail was being sorted into sections ‘Artilery’ and ‘POW’. Take a look at this beautiful image in high resolution yourself to see the detail.

We’ll be adding all the information, data, comments and questions collected to the artworks on Putting Art on the Map where you can join in the conversation and help add more details to these brilliant artworks. As ever, it was an amazing event and we want to thank the BPMA and all of the those who joined us the the afternoon for really getting involved.

Want to join us at our next live event?

Crowdsourcing Aviation History of the First World War
Date: Saturday 22 February 2014
Time 1pm – 3pm. Optional Museum tour at 3pm.
Location IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire CB22 4QR

Crowdsoursing the Maritime History of the First World War
Date: Thursday 27 February 2014
Time: 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Location: Steam, Steel and Submarines Gallery, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent ME4 4TE

Crowdsoursing the First World War works of William Orpen
Date: Tuesday 4 March 2014
Time: 2pm – 4pm
Location: Orpen Boardoom, IWM London, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ

In the meantime, don’t forget to explore Putting Art on the Map where you can solve mysteries and curate your own tours and collections with IWM’s amazing artworks and follow the conversation through IWM’s daily Tweets, Facebook and Google+ posts.

For the latest news and events, keep an eye on our blog.