Charity, material culture and disabled ex-servicemen in Britain, 1914-1929
This thesis examines the fluctuating relationship between charity, material culture, and disabled ex-servicemen in Britain from 1914-1929. It adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to draw attention to the importance of 'things' within charitable efforts to assist maimed soldiers after the First World War, and explore the impact of 'stuff' upon post-war perceptions of disability and war-disabled bodies. It focuses upon a number of specific every-day objects to examine the ways that charities adopted and adapted existing conceptions of these items for the benefit of disabled ex-servicemen, including cigarettes, artificial flowers, eggs, and chickens. By tracing the 'social life' of charitable artefacts at various stages throughout their production, consumption, and eventual (traceable) use, it examines the fluctuating cultural meanings and materialities of these things, and highlights the various ways that the changing cultural and material characteristics of objects contributed to popular perceptions of disability and charity. Significantly, this study views war-disabled bodies as material remnants of the First World War that were intimately, and indistinguishably, incorporated into a variety of charitable activities
Bartlett, Emily Charlotte
D501 World War I ; DA Great Britain
Charity, material culture and disabled ex-servicemen in Britain, 1914-1929. This thesis examines the fluctuating relationship between charity, material culture, and disabled ex-servicemen in Britain from 1914-1929. It adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to draw attention to the importance of 'things' within charitable efforts to assist maimed soldiers after the First World War, and explore the impact of 'stuff' upon post-war perceptions of disability and war-disabled bodies. It focuses upon a number of specific every-day objects to examine the ways that charities adopted and adapted existing conceptions of these items for the benefit of disabled ex-servicemen, including cigarettes, artificial flowers, eggs, and chickens. By tracing the 'social life' of charitable artefacts at various stages throughout their production, consumption, and eventual (traceable) use, it examines the fluctuating cultural meanings and materialities of these things, and highlights the various ways that the changing cultural and material characteristics of objects contributed to popular perceptions of disability and charity. Significantly, this study views war-disabled bodies as material remnants of the First World War that were intimately, and indistinguishably, incorporated into a variety of charitable activities
charity material_culture disable ex_servicemen britain examines fluctuate relationship charity material_culture disable ex_servicemen britain adopts cross_disciplinary draw_attention importance things within charitable effort assist soldier first_world_war explore_impact stuff upon post_war perception disability war disabled body focus_upon number specific every day object examine_way charity adopt adapted exist conception item benefit disabled serviceman include artificial flower chicken trace social_life charitable artefact various_stage throughout production_consumption eventual use examines fluctuate cultural_meaning materiality thing highlight various_way change cultural material characteristic object contribute popular_perception disability charity significantly study view war disabled body material remnant first_world_war intimately incorporated variety charitable activity