Artist draws on First World War archive for inspiration

A unique archive of letters, interviews and diaries relating to the First World War is providing the inspiration for a new artist in residence at the University of Leeds. The personal papers, oral testimonies, photos and memorabilia of more than 4,000 veterans and their relatives make up the Liddle Collection , part of the University’s Special Collections housed in its Brotherton Library. Visual artist Juliet MacDonald has just begun working with material in the collection, as part of a University project funded by the Leverhulme Trust’s Artist in Residence scheme. Juliet’s thought-provoking and tender drawings have been exhibited internationally. Her recent work explores historical subject matter and the early 20th century, with its rapid technological and social change, is of particular interest. The contents of the Liddle Collection tell the stories of ordinary people in the trenches and on the home front. Some of its artefacts and possessions were donated many years after the war by ex-servicemen and their families.