The First World War: A Documentary Record

Series One: European War 1914-1919, the War Reserve Collection (WRA -WRE)
from Cambridge University Library

Part 2: Trench Journals, Personal Narratives and Reminiscences

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE MICROFILM PROJECT

The availability of the complete card catalogue and manuscript listings will clearly be of great benefit to scholars wishing to understand the full range of materials contained in one of the largest assemblages of material for the study of the First World War.

However, to reproduce all of the items within the entire Cambridge War Reserve Collection WRA-WRE would not be desirable, as it does include some material which would be common to many collections - for instance: Parliamentary Papers and prominent monographs.

Our selection policy under the guidance of our Consultant Editor, Dr J M Winter, Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, has been to approach the collection on a subject basis concentrating on ephemeral materials, manuscript and rare printed items not likely to be held by most other libraries.

We have identified specific subject themes for each part of the microfilm project.

ie: Part 1: The Card Catalogue Index and Manuscript
Listings
Part 2: Personal Narratives and Reminiscences
Part 3: Allied propaganda of the First World War
Part 4: German Propaganda of the First World War
Part 5: The Royal Army Medical Corps, Red Cross and
other Auxiliary Services
Part 6: Military Operations 1914

Other subject themes to be covered by future parts include: military operations 1915-1918, naval and aerial operations, Russia, the Bolsheviks and the Eastern Front, Economics, Socialism, Reconstruction 1917-1919, Peace, the Versailles Settlement and the creation of the League of Nations 1918-1919, Pictures, Posters and Illustrations, memorial Volumes and Regimental Records 1914-1918.

"The First World War was the world-changing event of 'the twentieth century'. With all that has been written about it, large areas need to be enriched and deepened by access to a wider range of material. The War Reserve Collection at Cambridge University Library contains many unfamiliar and unusual documents. Once it becomes widely available, it will provide one basis for scholarly and popular studies of topics such as the trench experience, the role of the auxiliary services, and the propaganda campaigns of the two sides ( a welcome development, given that much writing on propaganda so far has tended to be as one-sided as the propaganda itself)."

Professor Trevor Wilson
The University of Adelaide