Friday 19 December 2014

Cartooning the First World War

Professor Chris Williams, Head of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University will be speaking at Digital Past 2015 on Cartooning the First World War, a web resource bringing together all the wartime newspaper cartoons of Joseph Morewood Staniforth, which originally appeared in the British Sunday paper the News of the World and the Cardiff daily paper the Western Mail. Over 1300 cartoons document the war’s changing fortunes and the ways in which the conflict was experienced and represented by one of the most popular visual artists of the time. Each cartoon is presented with explanatory notes and with an open invitation to users to comment on the image and its possible meanings. The cartoons are accompanied by a range of resources which help to contextualise the cartoonist, his work, and the newspapers which published him.



Once upon a time, a conceited hare challenged a humble tortoise to a race, and the challenge was taken up. The hare, which had long been in training, bounded forward in great style and outdistanced the tortoise easily. But the tortoise did not lose heart; he kept steadily on his way, gaining strength and speed as time went on, whilst the hare became weary and sick of the struggle. The race is not yet finished, but the odds are on the tortoise.

Cartooning the First World War is a project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and based at Cardiff University. 

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