When Scotland's last survivor of the 1944 Stag Luft III "Great
Escape" passed away peacefully last month aged 97, we were reminded
of the veteran's part in World War II's derring-do breakout story
that was later immortalised in film by Richard Attenborough, Steve
McQueen and James Garner.
But what of the other national stories from our brave men and
women in the forces that have never before been written down or
projected onto the silver screen? Well, last year we were
commissioned to build a ground breaking online museum for Museums Galleries Scotland to help capture a
fresh treasure trove of undiscovered memories and artifacts of war
from the nation's own civilians, veterans (young and old), as well
as those currently serving in our armed forces.
This pioneering project began with Screenmedia developing the
online multimedia exhibition using an innovative content management
system, which allowed 16 project teams across Scotland to create
and populate over 300 online exhibitions; including visual assets
such as diary extracts, newspaper articles, old photographs,
archived film, documents, paintings and photographed objects.
Now we're delighted to announce the official launch of Remembering Scotland at War - the culmination
of nearly 2 years development with the team at MGS - complete with
interactive online museum and community social networking platform.
A later additon to the project, the online community site not only
allows users to discuss Scotland's conflicts, they can also add
their own archive of images, documents and letters to help uncover
hidden pieces of Scotland's history; including stories and personal
accounts which may not have been previously known to
historians.
This fantastic intergenerational project is available online and
as a classroom teaching aid via Learning Teaching Scotland's
schools' intranet, Glow.
To explore the exhibition and to add your own archive documents,
visit the museum at www.RememberingScotlandAtWar.org.uk