By: Briana Muller, Spring 2020 London Correspondent
The Imperial War Museum is another museum with free entry, which is great. This museum has an incredible exhibit on World War I, including built-in trenches to make visitors understand what these were really like. There is also history on the Blitz, which was a German war tactic during World War II. There are additional exhibits on The Cold War, D-Day, Holocaust, Women in Wartime, Contemporary Conflict, Battle of Britain, and Fashion. This museum is very rich in information it provides to visitors through the diversity of its artifacts. When I visited this museum, I gained knowledge and perspective from letters, planes, tanks, and fashion. Especially as a fashion major, costume during these times shows a remarkable difference from today’s world.
What I enjoyed from this museum was the amount of artifacts they obtained and how there was a separate section of women in wartime. The "Women in Wartime" exhibit shows the role they played and featured a comparison to how women live today. Furthermore, not only did the Imperial War Museum have collections from the past, but also from the present. I found this to be remarkable since this is not a common feature in other museums I have visited. For example, its Contemporary Conflict exhibit covered Saddam Hussein, Lybian civil war and combat in Afghanistan, and the refugee crisis. Additionally, as soon as I walked into the museum, there was what looked to be a destroyed sculpture. However, it was actually remains of a car from a bomb attack on the book market at Al-Mutanabbi Street in central Baghdad on 5th March 2007. 38 people were killed in the explosion and hundreds were injured. No terrorist group has ever claimed responsibility for the explosion. There was no evidence of human remains in the car and it was unlikely it was occupied. The car was exported from Iraq in May 2007 (with the permission of the Iraqi government) by Jan Gruiters. He then passed it to a Dutch artist named Robert Kluijver. He donated it to the New Museum in New York, who commissioned the artist Jeremy Deller to turn it into an art installation. It is truly amazing that this museum obtained this vehicle to share its story with the world and I was one of them.
I love how the the Imperial War Museum acquires objects from all over the world to tell a story from different times of history. History is not my favorite subject by any means, but this museum definitely stood out to me for their detailed and abundant exhibits. This sparked my interest in something I have never taken the time to learn. Some of these exhibits were emotional, such as the Holocaust collection, but also was beautiful in the way the museum created the exhibit. This museum is by far the most interesting history museum I have ever visited. Everyone should take the opportunity to visit the Imperial War Museum, even if you are not interested in history.
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