Museum field trip - Thursday 7/14

This was an interesting day. The class field trip was to a couple of museums in London. Our readings this week have been focused on the two major wars of the twentieth century: World War I and World War II. In order to assist the students in understanding the context of the two wars, I took them to the Imperial War Museum, with its great displays on those wars, and to te Museum of London, to get a London specific view of the Blitz (the air war over London in World War II). Both of these visits were very useful in getting the students visual elements to match with the ideas raised in the poetry. In fact, at te Imperial War Museum, they even had the opportunity to get some experiential opportunites. The museum has a mock up of a trench from World War I, and it has a mock up of the bunker experience during the World War II air war. All in all, I think the day can be best summed up by the words of the student who turned to me near the end of the field trip and told that she thought this class was potentially the most traumatizing class she would ever take. The intensity of the poetry and the intensity of the exhibits really seemed to bring home to her, and all of the others, the ideas that expressed in the poetry and a little bit of the reality those ideas reflect.

These are a few of the pictures that I took. Sadly, most of my interior pictures did not turn out oo well, especially at the Imperial War Museum. I guess if you want to see the inside you'll just have to go on a study abroad trip of your own.

The Imperial War Museum - London

 This is the British Literature II class at the Imperial War Museum

Robin Padick, and ABAC student, standing next to a segment of the torn down Berlin Wall on display at the Imperial War Museum

Here are some of the Brit Lit II students at lunch

At the museum of London, our focus was on the World War II exhibits and a brief film made about the Blitz in London. The film used clips from interviews with actual Blitz survivors recalling their experiences. It was very powerful. I then looked around hte rest of the museum, and took some pictures of my favorite sections. One of which is the section covering the Roman period in Britain from about 56AD through the middle 400s AD. 

This is a miniature diorama of what the riverfront in London might have looked like in Roman times - Museum of London

this is a full size mock up of what a typical Roman Room might look like in Romanized England - Museum of London

This next picture was taken while we were traveling between hte museums. In itself, it is a rare thing to come across, at least in my experience.

A rarity - an empty tube station