In 2018 Europeana is running a campaign to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War. It will encourage public participation with and foster a connection to cultural heritage content through a centenary tour of on and offline events and activities. This campaign will build on and highlight the work of Europeana 1914-1918 since its start in 2011. This campaign is also closely linked to the European Year of Cultural Heritage.

After seven years of successful and intense crowdsourcing, content gathering and community building throughout the continent, Europeana 1914-1918 has built up a unique position in the World War One commemoration landscape and one of the most successful community-centric services of Europeana to date. With contributions from events in Lisbon to Riga and in Nicosia to Dublin, Europeana 1914-1918 is the only source where you can find material and stories from different countries and perspectives. And most of the material is explicitly made available for re-use.

The Europeana 1914-1918 Centenary Tour has started with the launch of a new online exhibition Visions of War, which brings together archive material from Europeana 1914-1918 and artworks held in museum collections. Every month we will highlight a different part of the Europeana 1914-1918 collection. We have kicked off in March with a focus on Denmark and related content. In April Luxembourg and related content are highlighted. In May the National History Museum in Athens will be hosting a Transcribathon. Keep an eye on our specially dedicated social media (Facebook and Twitter) for the latest information about activities and events.

The Europeana 1914-1918 Centenary Tour 2018 is organised by Europeana, Facts & Files and partners from all over Europe.

Is your World War One collection part of the Europeana 1914-1918 thematic collection? Do you have one that you would like to add? Have you worked with us in the past in one of our 1914-1918 campaigns? Would you like to organise an event? Then please join us in the Centenary Tour.

Five reasons to get involved:

• To be part of the Europeana 1914-1918 Centenary Tour, a key element of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage
• To join a unique, multilingual digital resource where thousands of cultural institutions – from regional archives to national museums – share their collections
• To bring your content to new dedicated audiences: individuals and professionals who can discover, research, share and enjoy Europe’s wealth of digital cultural resources
• To showcase your content in blogs, galleries and social media to reach millions of citizens across Europe
• To see your collections reused within research, education and the creative industries

If you represent a cultural heritage institution and you would like to be involved in or contribute to the Centenary Tour please contact Ad Pollé.

Europeana Transcribathon 1914-1918 is an online crowdsourcing initiative for the transcription and annotation of this unique, unpublished material. The aim is to create a vast and fully digital record of the written stories in Europeana 1914-1918. Facilitated by our online tool, Transcribathon allows members of the public to transcribe, annotate and geo-tag the hidden gems of the Europeana 1914-1918 collection.

Host Transcribathon at your institution!

There are many ways to use the tool in various educational settings, from secondary to university level. Students can work either individually or in teams. You can choose from a large variety of handwritten texts in many different languages. This can be anything from letters to poetry, diary entries to postcards. You can use these documents in the context or the subject of your choice. This could be, for example, in History (related to WW1 and national/ regional history), specific language classes, or in Civic, Social and Political Education programs. A more competitive element can be added to the classes by setting up a Transcribathon.

The Transcribathon tool is free to use. You can set up a Transcribathon in your class or your school, or even in ‘competition’ with other schools. You can get connected with even more local history by involving your local museum, gallery, library, or archive.

Find out more here or contact Ad Pollé.

To support the current Europeana 1914-1918 Centenary Tour, we are offering dedicated resources to partner institutions wishing to integrate a Wikimedia component into their work. Find out more about the kinds of activities.

1918 was not just the last year of the war. There was a lot going on in Europe and the continent was in ruins and turmoil. The fighting continued, but there were initiatives to start peace talks. The American President Wilson released his Fourteen Points plan that should lead to a new world order. There were revolutions brewing in Germany or in full swing, in Russia. Many peoples such as the Fins, the Czechs and the Poles, saw opportunities for independence and the creation of their nation states. There was also misery as people were starving because of lack of food supplies and there was an influenza pandemic that would kill more people than the fighting. But, of course, 1918 was also the year that brought an end to the fighting. On 11 November at 11 o’clock the Armistice was declared with bells tolling all over Europe.

September

• 14 - 15 September 2018, Europeana 1914-1918 Collection Days, National Archives, Budapest, Hungary
• 25 - 28 September 2018, Transcribathon Historiker Tag, Münster, Germany

October

• 8 - 12 October 2018, Europeana Transcribathon, Rome, Italy

November

• 28 - 30 November 2018, International Transcribathon Finale, Brussels, Belgium