Thoughts on today’s museum visits: moving from trivial to serious.
Regimental museums have a better class of mannequin.

Regimental museums like a model diorama

There are far too many blow by blow descriptions of battles and far too many objects that are on show simply because they belonged to a member of the regiment.

To many objects used for grisly purposes exhibited without any context. Eg force feeding equipment

Over the last few weeks we’ve interviewed several veterans who have set up or run regimental museums. They’ve been thoughtful and articulate, and spiken movingly on the emotional pull of the objects on display. I don’t often see that translating into the displays themselves.

And dear God the regimental museums need to rethink their terminology. Enough of the ‘mutinies’, ‘uprisings’, and ‘terrorist attacks’, with no thought being given to the legitimacy of other nations’ perspectives and causes.

One of the problems here may be the tension between regimental museums as memorial spaces and the wish to celebrate achievements and their role as history museums. It’s not easy to reconcile. But even so...

Admittedly I have probably rather overloaded on regimental museums today