A unique effort is taking place in Europe to preserve WWI artefacts as part of a WWI roadshow to cross 10 countries. Here is an excerpt from an article in The Visitor:
Appeal to help preserve World War One artefacts
LANCASTRIANS are being asked to help create an archive of World War One memorabilia.
They are being asked to take letters, photos, diaries and other items to a WW1 Family History Roadshow at the Museum of Lancashire, Preston.
Instead of festering in shoe boxes under the bed or deep inside the attic, we want to save your personal memories of the war in our virtual archive www.europeana1914-1918.eu/
The Preston roadshow is one of the first in a series that is being rolled-out across 10 countries in Europe this year to create a unique pan-European account of WW1 that is available to everyone.
Europeana 1914-1918 brings together a partnership of libraries, museums, academic and cultural institutions, which in the UK includes the British Library, Oxford University, JISC, and Lancashire County Council.
The organisers want ordinary families to tell us about their keepsakes, who they belonged to and why they are so important to them. Historians and experts will be on hand to talk about the significance of the finds – while professional digitisers and cataloguers will upload them to the website.
As the centenary approaches, the plan is to preserve these precious documents for future generations. Digitisation saves them from being lost or thrown away – and it keeps them safe for use by schools, genealogists and cultural organisations.