Official History, 1914-18 War: Records of C E W Bean, Official Historian.

Accession Number	AWM38
Collection type	Official Record
Object type	Official Record
Conflict	First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright	Item copyright: Commonwealth of Australia copyright
Copying Provisions	Copy provided for personal non-commercial use, permission from copyright holder must be sought for commercial use

Description

This series comprises the papers donated by Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean to the Australian War Memorial (AWM). His role as Australia's Official War Correspondent and later Official Historian for the First World War led him to become the driving force in establishing the Australian War Memorial. The first donations of his papers to the Memorial occurred in 1922, with the two major deposits being in 1942 after the completion of volume six of The official history of Australian in the war of 1914-18, and then after his death in 1968.

Many items in this series were created and maintained during the First World War to record events as they happened. These include Bean's notebooks and diaries, as well as reports and paperwork generated by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and other forces. These were used by Bean in his role as war correspondent, reporting events for the Australian public at the time.

Another significant portion of the records were created back in Australia in writing the Official History. These papers include manuscripts for each of the volumes, as well as indexes, financial records and correspondence relating to the writing of the history. Other papers from later in his life are also included. They include broadcasts, addresses and articles that Bean delivered, however it is noteworthy that these also span the twenty years during the writing of the history. Other items include family and personal papers, and reviews of the Official History.

The originals of Bean's diaries and notebooks (sub series 3DRL 606) have been digitised. The other records have not been digitised and can only be viewed at the Memorial. For more information on this series please see the introduction to the series.