An innovative online exhibit launched this week allows Londoners to see the city and learn about its war dead from 100 years ago.
The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum Wolseley Barrack’s exhibit Topography of Grief – Mapping the Great War dead in London was made in partnership with the masters of public history program at Western University and the Virtual Museum of Canada.
“The great thing about our exhibit is that behind a name and a photograph of a soldier who was killed in the war, we have discovered that they might have been sons, even daughters, husbands, brothers to someone,” said curator and executive director Georgiana Stanciu.
“We also brought forward the next of kin who experienced the loss at the very personal level.”
The exhibit also features an interactive map and even though the exhibit was only launched on Wednesday, Stanciu told 980 CFPL she’s already had a lot of feedback.
“I had people who recognized their house browsing the exhibit and they came with information that we did not have about the individual who lived in that house 100 years ago and then was killed in the war,” she added.
“Our chairman of the board discovered the house he’s living in, there was a soldier who was killed in action 100 years ago.”
The exhibit is one of several other similar interactive exhibits across Canada.