The first released British prisoners to reach Tournai, 14 November 1918

New exhibition of black and white photography at the Imperial War Museum reveals the optimism and ingenuity of a post-war world

In the years following the First World War, countries, cities, societies and individuals had to regenerate and rebuild themselves on an unprecedented scale – but from devastation and loss, a new world emerged.

Exploring the theme of renewal in relation to individual, societal and global recovery, Renewal: Life after the First World War in Photographs (21 September 2018 to 31 March 2019) highlights the ways in which lives, landscapes and national identities recovered, evolved and even flourished in the aftermath of war. Examining the complex processes of reconstruction, this major exhibition at IWM London includes over 130 black and white photographs, documents, and objects from the museum’s extensive collection.

The exhibition charts the initial optimism that followed the end of the First World War, as well as the realities of displacement, demobilisation, social change, and the fall of empires. Many individuals found themselves in new nations as borders were re-drawn and empires disbanded, but while the devastating effects of war were felt on both sides, developments in materials and new technologies also led to innovations. Military equipment was repurposed for civilian use and advances in medicine and plastic surgery enabled the reconstruction of the human body. 

Horses and men of 1st Anzac Corps on their way past the ruins of the Cathedral and Cloth Hall in Ypres.

From images of refugees returning to ruined homes, through the reconstruction of Ypres, to battlefields depicting the villages that ‘died for France’ and were never rebuilt, these rarely seen photographs from this little-explored time period reveal the extent of destruction and change in war-torn Europe and beyond.

Renewal: Life after the First World War in Photographs runs from 21 September 2018 to 31 March 2019 at the Imperial War Museum, London.