An exhibition has opened at Hackney Museum which examines propaganda used during the Great War to encourage men to enlist.
“The Art of War: Posters and Propaganda from the First World War” opened last Thursday. It features over 30 original recruitment posters, donated to Hackney Council by MP Leonard Benjamin Franklin in 1924. It also shows collections of medals, badges and photographs from the era.
Around 27,000 men from Hackney joined the military between 1914 and 1918, 5,000 of whom died in the conflict.
The first bomb to fall on London during World War One was dropped over a family home in Stoke Newington on 31 May 1915.
Cllr Jonathan McShane, cabinet member for health, social care and culture, said: “The war had a devastating impact on families and local communities, changing the area and the world forever.
“Hackney is giving people an opportunity to understand more about how people were recruited to fight.”
The exhibition also features work by artist-in-residence Lucy Harrison, who has produced art exploring the differences between the messages of WW1 propaganda posters and the feelings of local people.
Ms Harrison said: “I’ve been looking for signs of how the war affected people’s lives in Hackney, and for dissenting voices opposed to the war.
“I’ve selected extracts from people’s letters and diaries showing their responses in their everyday lives, either missing a family member or being suddenly thrown into being a soldier, and made my own posters.”
The exhibition closes on 28 May.
