First World War exhibit in Montreal for Remembrance week

It’s titled “Connections Remembered: A Great War Pop-up Exhibit” and it’s on display in Montreal during Remembrance week until November 10th.

“I think an exhibition like this really reminds people that war is about humans,” said Caitlin Bailey, the executive director of the Vimy Foundation, and the curator of the Canadian Centre for the Great War.

“What we’re trying to have people recognize here and all of these photographs and all of these faces is that all of these are individual people whose lives were irrevocably changed. And that’s what war does,” explained Bailey 

This exhibition focuses on the First World war and Canada’s involvement.

It’s a free pop up exhibit showing the impact the “Great War” had on the battlefield and the home front.

“What we’re looking at here is trying to encourage people to realize the connections that they might have or the connections that they may see between themselves and the First World War,” said Bailey, adding, “encouraging people to take a bit of time this week at some point during the week to remember the causes of war and what war brings to all of us and to have a moment to think about that.”

The “Great War” is a common term used to refer to World War 1.

The displays at the exhibit feature a number of artifacts from the war that include flashlights, mess tins and noisemakers used to warn troops of an incoming gas attack.

“Probably the most important thing for anyone on the on the front lines at that time aside from their weapon would have been their box respirator, which is a gas mask,” explained Bailey, adding, “the First World War saw a lot of use of chemical chemical warfare and gas masks are really kind of your first line of defense for that. So we do have what I guess everyone he likes to call a gas mask on display.”

The photos and artifacts offer insight into the personal experiences of Canadian soldiers involved in World War I at a time when the Canadian population was relatively small.

“It was around six or seven million people. And when you put that into a statistical perspective with the number of people who served in the First World War, that means one out of every ten Canadians served in the First World War. And out of those 700 or so thousand, one out of every ten died,” explained Bailey. 

This exhibit is located at 5524 Saint Patrick street in Montreal and has been curated by the Canadian Centre for the Great War, a division of the Vimy Foundation responsible for museum exhibitions.

“This is the time of year where we are actively thinking about war and what it means. And the First World War for Canada was really our major kind of modern first experience of mass warfare,” said Bailey. “So this for me is really a time where I encourage everyone to sit back and really take the time to think, you know, what is war?”