Gassed

1919

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Imperial War Museum

London · Founded 1917

Sargent's Gassed shows a line of blinded soldiers, hand on shoulder. Free entry, and it does not flinch.

0.8M
Visitors a year: 1917
Founded: Free
Admission: Daily 10–18
Daily opening hours

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What to see

Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring
Laura Knight, 1943. Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring is a 1943 oil on canvas painting by the British artist Dame Laura Knight. It depicts a young woman, Ruby Loftus, working at an industrial lathe cutting the screw of a breech-ring for a Bofors anti-aircraft gun.

Paths of Glory
C. R. W. Nevinson · 1917
C. R. W. Nevinson, 1917. Paths of Glory is a 1917 painting by British artist C. R. W. Nevinson. The title quotes from a line from Thomas Gray's 1750 poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave". It is held by the Imperial War Museum in London, which describes it as "one of Nevinson's most famous paintings".

To the Unknown British Soldier in France
William Orpen · 1927
To the Unknown British Soldier in France is an oil-on-canvas painting by Irish artist Sir William Orpen, exhibited in one state in 1923 and then modified in 1927. It was one of three paintings commissioned from Orpen to commemorate the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919.

Daddy, What Did You Do in the Great War?
"Daddy, What Did You Do in the Great War?" was a British First World War recruitment poster by Savile Lumley, and first published in March 1915 by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee. It was commissioned and submitted to the committee by Arthur Gunn, the director of the publishers Johnson Riddle and Company.

Take Off
Laura Knight, 1943. Take Off is an oil-on-canvas painting by English artist Laura Knight, created in 1943. It is one of the several works that she made when she was one of the British official war artists during the Second World War. It is held at the Imperial War Museum, in London.

The collections

Documents

The museum's documents archive seeks to collect and preserve the private papers of individuals who have experienced modern warfare.

Art
Labour Battalion Making A Road · C. R. W. Nevinson · 1918
The museum's art collection includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and works in film, photography and sound.

Film

The museum's Film and Video Archive is one of the oldest film archives in the world.

Photographs

The museum's Photograph Archive preserves photographs by official, amateur and professional photographers.

Exhibits

The museum's exhibits collection includes a wide range of objects, organised into numerous smaller collections such as uniforms, badges, insignia and flags (including a Canadian Red Ensign carried at Vimy Ridge in 1917, a Union Flag from the 1942 British surrender of Singapore, and another found among the wreckage of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks), as well a piece of the towers; personal mementoes, souvenirs and miscellanea such as trench art; orders, medals and decorations (including collections of Victoria and George Crosses); military equipment; firearms and ammunition, ordnance, edged weapons, clubs (such as trench clubs) and other weapons, and vehicles, aircraft and ships.

Library
Halt! Go into Training and Help the Boys at The Front · 1915
The museum's library is a national reference collection on modern conflict, and holds works on all aspects of warfare, including regimental or unit histories (such as 789 rare German unit histories from the First World War), technical manuals, biographical material and works on war's social, cultural, economic, political and military aspects.

Sound

The museum's Sound Archive holds 33,000 sound recordings, including a large collection of oral history recordings of witnesses to conflicts since 1914.

Databases

The IWM has an online database, listing the various items which make up the IWM Collections.