On the Beat: Stories from 1914-1918: A Fresh Approach to interpreting Crime History at Bishop’s Stortford Museum

Abstract

Following the donation of a rare collection of policing documents from World War I, Bishop’s Stortford Museum displayed these remarkable accounts in a temporary exhibition entitled ‘On the Beat: The Great War 1914-1918.’2 Within this article I aim to theorise the problematic aspects of museum exhibition design and the construction of meaning within the context of exhibiting historical policing archives. This will be achieved by addressing specific elements within the gallery space, including the use of colour, atmosphere and emotion as well as the primary communicative approach of employing graphic novels and comic strips. I endeavour to illustrate that using a thoughtful, targeted and multimodal exhibitionary complex is a highly successful means of disseminating policing history to a broad audience.