Celebrating a year on the Commons on Flickr
Officers of the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade. C952572
One year ago today, the Australian War Memorial joined the Commons on Flickr. We put up a set of 30 photos of soldiers, sailors, nurses, airmen, wives, mothers, sisters, sweethearts, a prime minister, and a koala. The photos are part of our photo collection of well over a million images which covers the experience of Australians at war and Australian military history from the 1860s to the present. We have uploaded other sets on the Commons since then, each with its own theme: Christmas, children, animals, Anzac Day, and First World War aviation. The 103 images have been viewed almost 180,000 times; there have been over 530 comments, 2,000 favorites, 340 tags and 830 contacts. 23 images have been used in 37 galleries. 94 photos have been favorited, 87 have been commented on; almost all have had tags added. There have also been notes added to many images.
Today we have uploaded a new set to the Commons, on the theme of love and war. The earliest images are from the First World War, and the most recent is dated 2003: sadly, there seems to be no end to war. There are photos of weddings, war brides learning about their new countries, and welcome home kisses. One photo shows the wedding of Norma and Frank Bissaker: her wedding dress is one of four from the Memorial's collection being considered for inclusion in our exhibition Of love and war. Sister H. Woodhead and Lieutenant M. Timbs got married in the Northern Territory in 1943: there is a photo taken after the wedding in the set, and there is also film footage of it from our collection posted on our YouTube channel.
A victory kiss, 1945. C198264
Related information We joined the Commons of Flickr on 11 November 2008 and posted about it in this blog. Fabric preservation and the application of fake sweat - one of our curators explains why 60 year old sweat on a wedding dress can be a problem in this video on our YouTube channel.