I wanted to post today to let you all know about the WW1 centenary project I and my colleagues have recently launched.
www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com has made the entire Illustrated London News 1914-1919 archives completely free for people to access. For those of you who don't know, Illustrated London News was a very popular publication through the 19th and most of the 20th centuries and was the first newspaper to include pictures in its reporting.
As a result Illustrated First World War.com gives you the chance to see some of the most amazing military images. Photography were not as sophisticated then as they are today, so we relied primarily on drawings/ paintings but often featured photographs as well. Some of the best artists of the time, including Fortunino Matania, worked for Illustrated London News ltd and produced some spectacular WW1 artwork [pictured]. Of course, this includes a great deal of illustrations and information on tanks.
ATM our website gives full access to the 1914-1919 Illustrated London News but we will soon be including the 1914-1919 editions of our other prominent WW1 publications including The Sphere, the Graphic, The Tatler, The Bystander, The Sketch, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and The Illustrated War News (published specifically to report on WW1)
We also have a timeline, topic, titles and artists sections (including tanks and armoured vehicles) with material curated by myself and the heritage team. We also have a great blog filled with great WW1 facts and centenary news.
So if you’re interested in seeing some of the greatest imagery to be produced in the First World War visit www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com and check out our contribution to WW1 heritage.
Thank you very much, Patrick, for you and your colleagues' hard work in placing the archive online! Some of us have already been delving into it, but it's really great to have one of the projects instigators post here and I'm sure I speak for many here when I say that I look forward to seeing the ILN's sister publications online as well.
"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.