Curating emotions: creation and commemoration of artistic works by women in the First World War

Millar, Rachel (2026) Curating emotions: creation and commemoration of artistic works by women in the First World War. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis examines visual media produced by British women in the First World War that explore their experiences with work. It does so by tracing a curated collection of artistic works from their production between 1914 and 1920 to their inclusion into commemorative events between 2014 and 2018. In order to investigate ideas about women’s wartime experiences as war workers and artists, the thesis first explores the ways in which well-known roles in munitions and medicine were presented in dominant wartime discourses through officially commissioned paintings. The middle chapter considers official photographs depicting roles in auxiliary organisations. The final chapter analyses personal photograph albums and scrapbooks produced by four women who were placing themselves at the centre of their own narratives during the conflict. Curating a diverse range of visual media helps to achieve a clear and nuanced understanding of the complex ways in which women’s lives at work were defined and represented during and after the First World War. These intensive studies offer a new perspective on untangling emotional engagement with the conflict at the time of production and now.

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the creation and commemoration of women’s work in the First World War. Visual media are employed to bridge knowledge gained from historical research on women’s work in the conflict and concepts from the history of emotions that historians have begun to use in analysing the past. Each chapter not only attends to the objects themselves but investigates how they have been deployed by curators and interpreted by viewers at the time of production and subsequently.

Thus, tracing visual media over time is a means of understanding how officially commissioned paintings, photographs, and private snapshots have been utilised by curators to tell stories about women’s wartime roles. By choosing artistic works that featured in centenary activities, the thesis draws connections and comparisons between national, regional, and community commemorations. I argue that for the most part curators have employed artistic works to reaffirm traditional narratives deeply embedded in British attitudes and conceptions of the conflict. However, in adopting the lens of emotion and attending to the use of visual media in commemorative events I argue that curators have purposefully curated emotion.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General); D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D501 World War I; D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Funder's Name: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Abrams, Professor Lynn, Wieber, Dr. Sabine and Hughes, Professor Lorna
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-85887
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 20 Apr 2026 13:39
• Last Modified: 20 Apr 2026 13:39
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85887
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85887