One Day in Cumbria is ready to go

Guest blogger Helen tells you about this exciting take on the space.  If you keep reading to the bottom, there's a way we can all get involved and make a bit of history:

One Day in Cumbria is the latest temporary exhibition to appear in the Shed at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle.  Installation started earlier this week, where project co-ordinator Mary Ferguson unpacked the new panels and timeline banner, and organised the space ready for the new displays.  

The One Day in Cumbria project marks the Centenary of the First World War.  It has been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund’s First World War: then and now programme, and centres on research into daily life and industry in 1914.   People around Cumbria are invited to help make history on 5 December this year by sharing their updates about life on the same day in 2014, and the final results will be shown on an interactive timeline, at http://onedayincumbria.org.uk comparing and highlighting changes in the county 100 years apart.

The current exhibition at Tullie House forms just part of the One Day in Cumbria project, by displaying the research that the volunteers have been working on since October.  The Shed gallery space also provides a place for visitors to ask questions, find out more and to take part too.    

The One Day in Cumbria volunteer researchers have visited museums, libraries and archives across the county and discovered a wealth of information about life in the area that is now Cumbria.  From tales of fundraising in local schools to stories of Belgian refugees fleeing a devastated homeland to settle in temporary homes, the project highlights the way that local people supported the war effort, each other and those most in need in the early days of the war.

The First World War broke out in August 1914. By December that year, people at home were beginning to feel the effects of the war. But much of life continued as normal. No-one could predict, at this time, how long the war would last and how many lives it would claim.

Do we prepare for and celebrate Christmas in the same ways now as people did then? Is sport just as important or does it play an even bigger part in out lives? Do we still know our neighbours the way people did 100 years ago?  We’d like you to get involved in this exciting experiment.  Submit your story through the http://onedayincumbria.org.uk website or by using the #onedayincumbria hashtag on Facebook or Twitter.

The Exhibition runs from 25 November to 13 December 2014

On 11 December, the Consortium will publish two 24-hour timelines of life in Cumbria. One will chart life on 5 December 1914 and the other the same day, 100 years later. Help make history.