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THE MERCIAN EAGLE
Cheshire Military Museum
Into the Digital Age!
By Maj (Retd) E Pickering MBE
2013 has been a busy year here at the Cheshire Military Museum. Our dedicated team of staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly on a number of large projects, perhaps most notably the digitisation of
the Regimental archives. Although far from complete, progress has been made with
full transcriptions of personal diaries and letters and work to produce digital copies of the Battalion War Diaries, well under way. These documents will be very useful for Regimental research
Great War. The display entitled ‘In their own words’ will be updated throughout the digitising process.
In a further foray into the digital age, temporary exhibitions are now presented in a digital format with text and images on an interactive screen adjacent to the objects. The first of these exhibitions, ‘Adventures in Africa’, looked at Cheshire soldiers serving in Africa. With this display we were able to highlight a number of interesting
and will make displaying archives in the museum much easier.
In a further foray into the digital age, temporary exhibitions are now presented in a digital format
stories, including that
of Brigadier Francis Pring, who won the MC and bar while with the Nigeria Regiment during the First World War.
The group of medals, a recent acquisition to the museum, were temporarily on view in the introduction room
In a bid to make
the best use of this
emerging resource, we
have put to work the
touch screen kindly
provided by the Ministry
of Defence, Heritage
Branch. Currently visitors to the museum can access a full version of Lt Brockbank’s personal diary, scanned and transcribed letters from the front and a video recorded in 1998 of Andrew Proctor recalling life in the trenches. We are particularly pleased with the transcription of Lt Brockbank’s diary as this is one of our most important archives which will allow visitors to gain
a real insight into everyday life during the
throughout the exhibition. A wonderful addition to the collection they have now gone on permanent display in the medal drawers. The current exhibition ‘1900- 1914 the build up to war’ was curated by students from the University of Chester.
It looks at the political, technological and military developments during this crucial period leading to the outbreak of the Great
Museum