Event Details

To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day we are presenting an exhibition highlighting the Patten Second World War Collection held by the Special Collections and Archives in the Library...

To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day we are presenting an exhibition highlighting the Patten Second World War Collection held by the Special Collections and Archives in the Library.

Peter Patten (1928-2005) was a collector of paper ephemera published in Second World War era. He amassed a collection of more than 1000 leaflets, booklets and other paper items, which was donated to Lancaster University in the late 1980s.

The collection consists of materials covering a broad range of topics, a large proportion of which were published or sanctioned by the British Government. These include ration books, leaflets providing information about cooking and preserving food on a wartime diet, and air raid precaution booklets that provided advice to British citizens on how to protect themselves against bombing raids and gas attacks.

Other documents in the collection relate to military organisations including the Royal Air Force, British Army, Navy, Fire Service and Home Guard. There are several propaganda documents about the German, Soviets and other nations’ military organisations and a small number of books written in the German language.

Theatre programmes, comedy and music publications reflect people’s social and leisure interests, whilst political papers show their differing responses to the war effort and hopes for the future.

Many documents within the collection would not have been considered appropriate for retention by official organisations at the time. Their preservation through Patten’s efforts has secured a valuable insight into the lives of ordinary British citizens and the administrative work of British Government Departments during the Second World War.

The exhibition was developed by MA student Janet Stewart during her HIST491 Outreach, Heritage and Public History Placement in our Special Collections and Archives.

The display will be in the Special Collections and Archives exhibition area (near the Safepod on A Floor in the Library) until the end of June. Further information on the collection can be found in the Patten Second World War Collection Libguide.