Blog category - Exhibitions
More about the blog
28 September 2006 by Mal Booth.
1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse
If you’ve managed to subscribe to this blog or if you’ve been looking at it for a few days since we went live, you’ll have noticed that it has not had a lot of content added since Day #1. Chris, our technical developer has been been fixing and improving things, like the link into our museum catalogue for some of the images we will use. Now you can select these images and most will open up in a new window that shows you the museum catalogue entry containing all the descriptive data in that system. We’ve also added a few plug-ins that will help us to manage this blog better.
As the blog covers the development of our exhibition, we will also need to add some posts that cover events from months ago as the blog birthday is some distance into our exhibition development process. We think you’ll find at least some of that process interesting, particularly as we will cover the somewhat complex procedure involved in borrowing exhibition items from overseas institutions. Happy reading!
Mal Booth
Why is the Memorial doing an exhibition on Lawrence of Arabia?
20 September 2006 by Mal Booth.
1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
More than 70 years after his death, T E Lawrence remains one of the most compelling and intriguing figures of the Twentieth Century. His enigmatic personality, his intimate involvement in the emergence of the modern Middle East and the achievements of his extraordinary life, ranging from the guidance of the Arab revolt through the meticulous writing of Seven pillars of wisdom to the development of high speed air-sea rescue boats for the Royal Air Force, have secured him a place as one of the world’s most famous men. Yet so much of what we know about him is uncertain. Many facets of what he did remain overshadowed by nagging doubts of misrepresentation and obfuscation. He, himself, deliberately laid trails to confuse and confound people whom he knew one day would be re-examining his life. As an intensively private individual, he struggled daily with the overwhelming power of his celebrity. Yet, he did much to enhance this and regularly used it to advance his own agenda.
But, apart from the universal appeal of his unique personality, what has Lawrence got to do with Australia? Why should the Memorial consider him sufficiently important to focus a major, special exhibition on his wartime achievements?
The answers, as befits Lawrence, are complex but persuasive. For many Australians the war against the Ottoman Turks
after Gallipoli revolves around the actions and adventures of the Australian Light Horse (ALH). The self-sufficient, bush-hardened Light Horseman sitting astride his waler, seeking battle and relentlessly pursuing the Turks through the unforgiving landscape of Palestine and Syria is one of the central images of the Australian history of the First World War. It is an integral part of the national character that Australia took away from the events of 1914-18 and absorbed into its emerging national self-consciousness. In stark contrast to the stasis and agony of the Western Front, the war of the ALH appeared to be fast-paced, action-packed and demanded personal initiative and self-reliance as the new Crusaders finally liberated the Holy Land. The Light Horsemen were distinctively Australian and, after their story was laid down in a remarkably evocative official history published by Sir Henry Gullet in 1923, they developed a legendary reputation.
TE Lawrence correspondence in our records
20 September 2006 by Mal Booth.
No comments
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Less than six degrees of separation
The following interesting exchange between C. E. W. Bean (Australia’s Official Historian for the First World War) and TE Lawrence was found a while ago when we started researching our exhibition.
It was found in an official record series: AWM 43 ‘Official History, 1914-18 War, biographical and other research files’.
Bean intended to show biographical details (eg. the dates and places of birth and a connection to a town or district to which they belonged) for all those mentioned in the 12 volumes of the history. (These are now fully digitised and available on our website here for anyone interested.) So, on 29 March 1922, Bean sent Lawrence the usual form letter requesting his details. The request was sent to ‘Lieut-Colonel T. E. Lawrence, C.B., D.S.O., All Souls College, Oxford, England’.
Lawrence replied with the following note hand-written on the bottom of the form:
Dear Bean
I do not think I belong to any special town or district, though I have a house in Essex (England). This entry is no doubt meant specially for Australians, who may be more domiciled than we are. The two decorations which you put after my name were not conferred upon me – except by the Strand Magazine!
22.5.22 TEL.
On the returned form, Lawrence has also written in ‘Wales’ for place of birth and just ’1888′ for the date. For profession or calling he has written ‘Historian’. He circled the C.B. and D.S.O. post-nominals and noted after the rank Lieut-Colonel ‘in 1918 only’.
In July 1922, Bean wrote to an officer of the Australian War Museum, then located in the Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne, Victoria seeking the London Gazette information for Lawrence’s CB and DSO awards. He was informed that the CB was gazetted in the Third Supplement to the London Gazette on 7/8/1917 (p. 8163) and the DSO on 13/5/1918 (p. 5694), along with the citations for these awards. The officer (Mr A. G. Pretty) also informed Bean that in the British Who’s Who of 1920 and 1921 the CB and DSO are shown in Lawrence’s biography, but in the 1922 issue they are deleted, noting that this was ‘probably at Lawrence’s own request. By then he was disillusioned.’ I have no idea how he came upon that information, other than by reading press reports in Melbourne.
Mal Booth
Seven pillars of wisdom
14 September 2006 by Mal Booth.
1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
Seven pillars 1926 subscriber's edition
The 1926 subscriber’s edition was purchased by the Memorial using funds donated to the Memorial by the Australian Light Horse Association (raised through the sale of the book Australia in Palestine) to acquire records relating to military operations in Palestine. At the time this edition was the only version of Lawrence’s fuller account that was available. After much consultation, the Memorial’s Board of Trustees offered to purchase the book soon after Lawrence’s death in 1935 as it was seen as an important addition to the Australian Light Horse records held in the collection. It is one of only 170 full copies ever produced.
The production of the 1926 subscriber’s edition reflects Lawrence’s love of exquisitely produced books. Each copy had its own individual binding. The Memorial’s copy has a gold-tooled, Oxford blue morocco leather binding with raised cords. The index page to the illustrations is hand-annotated by Lawrence ‘Complete Copy’ and initialled ‘T.E.S.’ (He had adopted the pseudonym ‘T.E. Shaw’ in February 1923 when he joined the Tank Corps as a private.) Each new chapter within the book begins with an illuminated first letter. The text was printed on high quality paper and laid out with much consideration given to balance on the page. Respected contemporary artists were commissioned, and their works, which include landscapes and portraits of the main Arab and British participants, give the book a modernist feel.
You can hear a recent Memorial podcast by subscribing to the Exhibitions feed on our Podcasts page.
Mal Booth
