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ABSTRACT
This article takes the Memorial Museum Passchendaele, 1917 as a case study to examine living history as an instructive, interactive, and engaging means for both adult and youth to connect with museum content of the First World War. Located in Zonnebeke, Belgium, the museum provides an interpretation of the material culture – the objects in the museum – through a complex performance in which the visitor attempts to comprehend the horror of the war within an institutionalized environment. In adding interactive living history, visitors become active players in the exhibitions, specifically through the addition of De Patrouilleurs, a Belgian living history group.Z
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. This is the description from Event Communication, the firm that designed the exhibition. Event Communications, Ltd., ‘IFFM,’ http://www.eventcomm.com/Site2/flanders.htm.
2. The IJzertoren officially changed its name to the Museum aan de IJzer (the Museum on the IJzer [River] in 2014. During the war, the IJzer River was referred to by its French name, Yser.
3. Anderson, Time Machine: The World of Living History, 1984.
4. National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), ‘Experiences that Matter: Enhancing Student Learning and Success’, 2007.
5. A. Smith, ‘National Identity, Re-enactment and Conflict: A Usable Past?,’ 304.
6. Gapps, ‘Museums of the Living Dead: Performance, Body and Memory,’ 2018.
7. Discussed in Banghard, ‘Unter dem Häkelkreuz. Germanische Living History und rechte Affekte: Ein historischer Überblick in drei Schlaglichtern [Under the crocheted cross. Germanic Living History and Right Effects: A Historical Overview in Three Highlights],’ 2009.
8. See Collingwood, 1946; de Certeau, 1984; and Lowenthal, 1985.
9. Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History, 106.
10. See note 3 above.
11. Anderson, 67.
12. Snow, Performing the Pilgrims, 8.
13. V. Agnew, J. Lamb, and J. Tomann, The Routledge Handbook of R-enactment Studies, 2020.
14. D. Dean, ‘Living History’, 120.
15. Blackson. ‘Once More… with Feeling,’ 30.
16. A. Smith, 306.
17. Turner, ‘Bloodless Battles,’ 124.
18. Blackson, 30.
19. Deetz, ‘A Sense of Another World,’ 45.
20. Interview with the author, Zonnebeke, Belgium, 17 July 2017.
21. See note 18 above.
23. Katch, Under Deadman’s Skin, 2002.
24. Shelby, Belgian Museums of the Great War, 2017.
25. Information on how living history at the MMP1917 is perceived was obtained through author interviews with museum directors, curators, and other staff in 2013–19. Those interviewed wish to remain anonymous.
26. Agnew, 335.
27. Nora, ‘Reasons for the Current Upsurge in Memory,’ Eurozine, April 22.
28. Witcomb, ‘Understanding the Role of Affect in Producing a Critical Pedagogy for History Museums,’ 2013; Mulcahy, ‘Sticky Learning,’ 2016; Dudley, Museum Materialities, 2013.
29. Lidchi, ‘The Poetics and the Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures,’ 1997; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture, 1998.
30. Howes, Sensual Relations, 2003.
31. Citation to be inserted upon completion of anonymous peer review.
32. Fleury, ‘Muséograpy(s) compare(s) de la Grande Guerre en 2013. Allemagne – Belgique – France – Royaume-Uni,’ In Situ [Online], 25, 2014, 7. http://journals.openedition.org/insitu/11559. ‘The Study on transmission of the memory of the Great War’ compares national school curricula that reflects different historiographical traditions. Planeth-Département du Nord, 2013. For example, in the children’s section of the Australian War Memorial, visitors are able to handle authentic objects.
33. Diamond, ‘Introduction. Performance and Cultural History,’ 9.
34. Agnew, 332.
35. Gunter Schöbel, ‘Experimental Archaeology,’ in Agnew , The Routledge Handbook of Re-enactment Studies, 67.
36. Because of De Patrouilleurs’ attention to period detail, the kitchen was hired and utilized in the BBC series Parade’s End (2013). Unlike objects behind the vitrines in the MMP1917, the kitchen, waggons, rifles, and other equipment must be in working order; the upkeep and storage of the equipment provides the highest number of challenges for the group.
37. Chielens, Dendooven, Haltain-Gall and Lauwers, ‘Reflections on Ypres’ centenary: An interview with Piet Chielens and Dominiek Dendooven’, 158. Chielens will step down from role as coordinator in 2021.
38. The remains of the four soldiers were taken from near the Dodengang (the Trench of Death) in Diksmuide in an authentic Ford Model T military ambulance to the military cemetery in De Panne, where the coffins were handed over to the active soldiers from the same regiment as that of De Patrouilleurs. For coverage of the event, see http://www.wo1.be/nl/jewaserbij/12850/herbegraving-van-4-belgische-soldaten-de-panne.
39. Turner, 124.
40. Schroeder, ‘Living History: Getting Beyond Nostalgia?,’ 19–20.
41. Handler and Saxton, “Dyssimulation: Reflexivity, Narrative, and the Quest for
Authenticity in ‘’Living History,’’ 243.
42. Wilson, Landscapes of the Western Front, 2012.
43. Auslander, ‘Touching the Past,’ 9.
44. Wilson, 9.
45. Kenney, “Where It’s At, 32.
46. S. Magelssen, Living History Museums: Undoing History through Performance, 2007.
In several sites that represent First Nation peoples (in both the United States and Canada), living history programs have been added in an attempt to make knowledge about the past more inclusive and historically accurate, which often serves to revise the historical narratives of contemporary dominant society. Peers. ‘“Playing Ourselves,”’ 40.
47. Interview with the author, Moere, Belgium, 17 July 2017 and 22 November 2021.
48. Chaumier, Traité de’expologie. Les écritures de l’exposition, 2012.
49. Chielens, Dendooven, Haltain-Gall and Lauwers, ‘Reflections on Ypres’ centenary: An interview with Piet Chielens and Dominiek Dendooven’, 154–164.
50. Chielens, ‘Reflections on Ypres’ centenary’, 158.
51. Handler and Saxton, 243.
52. Interview with the author, Zonnebeke, Belgium, 17 July 2017.
53. Agnew, 311.
54. Handler and Saxton, 243.
55. Kelsey, ‘Harvests of History,’ cited in Handler and Saxton, 339.
56. Adults also participate in the Platoon Experience as a team-building exercise.
58. Kristof Blieck, interview with the author, Zonnebeke, Belgium, 17 July 2017.
59. The Provincial Archaeological Museum of Velzeke (PAM Velzeke) near Zottegem was the first in the area to offer a living history student programme, but the program is held in the museum.
60. Filene, ‘History Museums and Identity,’ 2017.
61. Pierre Ruyffelaere, interview with the author, Brussels, Belgium, 20 July 2016.
62. Carrington, A Subaltern’s War, 22–23.
63. A note on the MMP1917 website states the following: ‘In 2018, the Belgian Act on Weapons was revised. Because there is no clear view yet on the impact on the project “Platoon Experience,” we decided to not use the weapons during the project until further notice.’ https://www.passchendaele.be/en/Education/The_Platoon_Experience_14_years_old/Presentation (https://www.passchendaele.be/en).
64. Latour, Pandora’s Hope, 179.
65. Scarry, The Body in Pain, 281.
66. Due to heavy bombardment, leapfrogging developed out of necessity. The first wave of infantry held ground once the objective was reached. A second wave of soldiers then passed through that objective for a second attack while the earlier wave then became the tactical reserve. This was repeated with the goal of infantry reaching enemy lines and served as a way to hold ground as troops advanced.
67. Blieck, interview with the author, Zonnebeke, Belgium, 17 July 2017.
68. Collingwood, The Idea of History, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946; de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984; and Lowenthal, The Past Is a Foreign Country, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
69. Agnew, 335.
70. See note 67 above.
71. Steven Maes, interview with the author, Moere, Belgium, 17 July 2017.
72. Meyers and Jones, Promoting Active Learning, 9.
73. Chielens, ‘Reflections on Ypres’ centenary’, 158.
74. Ibid.
75. Agnew, ‘Introduction’, in Agnew , The Routledge Handbook of Re-enactment Studies, 5.
76. Ibid.
77. Wils, ‘A War to Learn From,’ 180.
78. Wils, 189.
79. Carnes, Minds on Fire, 2014.
80. Ritchie-Calder, ‘General Brief,’ memorandum to Director-General, 24 November 1998 Exhibitions Department Imperial War Museum, London. As cited in Espley, ‘How Much of an “Experience” Do We Want the Public to Receive?,’ 332.
81. Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture, 14.
82. Savenije and de Bruijn, ‘Historical Empathy in a Museum,’ 835.
83. McCarthy and Anderson, ‘Active Learning Techniques,’ 286.