Author Archives: Elspeth Millar

Kent, its Regiments, and the First World War

29 October 2018 – 4 January 2019 (extended to 8 February 2019)
Curators: Mark Connelly, Elspeth Millar, Rachel Dickinson

Men of the 1st Battalion, The Buffs at Bois-Grenier, winter 1914

‘Kent, its Regiments, and the First World War’ showcases the Queen’s Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment Collection, which is cared for as part of Special Collections & Archives at the University of Kent. The exhibition uses the collection to look at Kent’s two historic military regiments: the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment). The exhibition will look at the histories of the regiments, their close links to Kent and the ‘home front’, and their roles during the First World War.

Material is drawn from the Queen’s Own Buffs, the Royal Kent Regiment Collection (which was deposited with the University of Kent by the Regimental Association of the Queen’s Own Buffs, Royal Kent Regiment), other collections cared for in the Templeman Library, and with loaned material from local institutions.

Mundus Subterraneous

SarahCraskeMundusSubterraneousFilmStillMundus Subterraneous, the Templeman Library’s first commissioned art installation, is an exciting new piece by artist in residence Sarah Craske, revealing the microscopic life forms hidden in the Library.

It opened on 21 March 2016, and is on show in the Templeman Gallery at various times throughout the year, among other events.

Sarah forensically swabbed items from our Special Collections to collect the microflora growing on them. She then cultivated them and documented their growth, blending it with an image from Athanasius Kircher’s seventeenth-century work Mundus Subterraneus from our collections. Using macro and timelapse photography, digital and analogue technologies, Sarah has created a short film depicting the beauty of the unseen microbial world in our books.

Pictured above: a still from the film.

Saint-Omer and the British Army, 1914-1918

9 January – 3 March 2017

Curated by Terence Hughes and Suzie Bridges

The General Headquarters (GHQ) of the British Expeditionary Force was based at Saint-Omer during World War One and as the HQ of the Royal Flying Corps the small Pas-de-Calais town became the centre of British air power in France. ‘Saint-Omer and the British Army, 1914-1918’ will demonstrate the impact of World War One on Saint-Omer during occupation. The exhibition, whose displays are in both French and English, will be loaned to the University of Kent University for display in the Templeman Gallery during January 2017. The displays to be shown in the exhibition seek to illustrate the huge scale of the British commitment in Flanders during the Great War.  In graphic style the exhibition’s photographs, posters, newspaper reports and private letters will reveal the way in which Saint-Omer’s citizens stoically experienced the Great War alongside the British Army.

Saint Omer market, 1918, Image: IWM

Saint-Omer market, 1918, Image: Imperial War Museum (c) IWM Q11074, catalogue reference Q11074