Memory and Commemoration Collections

Introduction

With the emergence within historical research of the study of memory and commemoration practices, the IHR library has seen a substantial growth over recent years in its collections documenting the history of memory. In addition, with significant centenaries of historical events and an exponential rise in public commemoration and heritage events, the library has endeavoured to collect works on memorialisation practices and the wider influence of history on society as a whole. Consequently, the library now contains extensive holdings of both theoretical works and general introductions to the field, as well as volumes focusing upon specialised studies, with examples ranging from memorials to seafarers in Britain and Ireland, to contemporary attempts to 'market' memory in Latin American societies.

The relevance and appeal of memory and memorialisation studies throughout historical research and across disciplinary boundaries necessitates that works concerning memory are distributed across the library's collections. As the IHR's holdings are mostly arranged geographically, material falls within the IHR's collection areas of bibliographies and archive guides, reference works, historiography, published primary sources, and periodicals. Selected examples concerning the history of memory and commemoration practices from these collections are outlined below.

Whilst works are distributed across collections, multiple holdings can be found in the general historiography section at shelf-mark E.1466 (Memory and Commemoration) as well as at classmarks within specific collections (for example memorialisation of the Holocaust EY.095, Spanish Civil War ES.0979, the First World War W.09). Highlighted sources concerning the study of memory in relation to the First World War, Spanish Civil War and the Holocaust are outlined below. These case studies have been chosen for the breadth of sources available in the IHR library for the study of the memorialisation, commemoration practices and collective social memory surrounding these historical events.