09 January 2008 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, The Light Horse
This blog post was written by Emily Robertson, a post-graduate student from the Australian National University who briefly worked at the Memorial as an intern in our Art section.
During the second battle of Gaza, on 17 April 1917, a group of Australian signallers led by Corporal (later Sergeant) Ernest Lovell-Shore discovered a mosaic that had been partially uncovered by Turkish troops, who had built a trench on a mound in the Wadi Ghuzze near the town of Shellal. As part of the process of establishing a helio station on the site, the Australian troops uncovered an extraordinary example of Byzantine art which is now known as the Shellal Mosaic. Created in AD 561 - 562 under the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, the Mosaic is now held in the art collection of the Australian War Memorial (ART40979) and is on permanent display in the Hall of Valour.
Shellal Mosaic 
Shellal detail 1 
Shellal detail 2
read on
09 January 2008 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, AUDIO TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION
In this post we provide an audio tour that you can listen to online or download the podcast.
Warning: it is a bit rough! Not the technical quality, just my own voice as we recorded a live tour, so there was no script. It isn’t Geraldine Dougue or Peter Ustinov, just me.
My thanks to our Sound Engineer Lenny Preston who edited out all the really bad mistakes and some background noise, our Robyn who helped him and our Web Developer, Adam Bell, who makes it all work online.
One last thing, a request from me for some feedback on this kind of content on the blog, particularly if you think it will be useful to bring with you as an audio guide on your own MP3 player.
Subscribe to the podcast (copy and past the URL into your podcast software).
25 December 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
Australian Flying Corps feature (1) 
AFC feature (2) 
Stuart Reid’s “Handley Page reaches rendezvous with Lawrence of Arabia” 
Lawrence’s black robes
In terms of the links between Lawrence and Australians, this is one of the most fascinating parts of the exhibition. The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) had many pilots who had begun their service as members of the Light Horse, such as Captain Sir Ross Smith, who is shown in a portrait above by W.B. McInnes. The AFC provided air support to both Lawrence and the Light Horse. In the low showcase we see Ross Smith’s decorations and logbook as well as a letter by another AFC officer, Stan Nunan, who describes Lawrence in heroic terms to his family in early 1918. Stuart Reid depicted the arrival of the huge Handley Page aircraft in September 1918, piloted by Ross Smith and was given the black silk robes (right) by Lawrence, which his widow later donated to the Memorial. They are displayed in this exhibition for the first time. read on
24 December 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
Here are some images of the exhibition. We haven’t got the professional photos yet, so these are just my snaps. They’ll be good enough to give you a look at most of the features we have on display. (I still need to add a couple that I seem to have missed when I took these, so check back sometime in January 2008.)
Main entrance showcase
The two films - “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Forty Thousand Horsemen”
The two books: “Seven pillars of wisdom” & “The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, 1914–1918″
This initial feature recognises what most people may know about the legends of both Lawrence and the Light Horse. Above you can see: the entrance showcase containing a full light horseman’s uniform, saddle and kit alongside a set of T.E. Lawrence’s robes and headdress from All Souls College in Oxford; a feature on the two legendary films, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Forty Thousand Horsemen (1941); and the two early histories, Henry Gullett’s The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, 1914-1918 (1923) and T.E. Lawrence’s Seven pillars of wisdom (1926). The DVD screen shows both original feature film trailers and there is a mirror under Seven pillars of wisdom so that the binding by Roger de Coverly & Sons is visible. Beyond this we explore the history behind the legends. read on
17 December 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, The Arab Revolt
At last we have James Barr’s talk available as an audio file that you can listen to here, while browsing some of his 28 photos or after downloading it using the link below. Thanks again to James for his time and his generosity with these photos. Now go out and buy his book Setting the desert on fire!
[MEDIA=1]
Download the MP3 audio file (13.9MB)
Map 
Damascus Damascus 
Azrak tower 
Hejaz railway
read on
13 December 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
Well, the exhibition is now open and my feet have barely hit the ground since. When things slow down I’ll post some images and information about the opening, but currently I am still spending about 3-4 hours a day running tours as the exhibition seems pretty popular so far. Don’t panic! It is open until 25 May 2008.
As many of you will have read, Jeremy Wilson came out to the opening of the exhibition and presented a public talk on the Lawrence and taking of Akaba on 9 December in the Memorial’s Telstra Theatre. This visit was sponsored very generously by the British High Commission in Canberra. While he was here Jeremy also recorded a long interview with Phillip Adams on his Late Night Live show on the ABC’s Radio National. This show went to air late on Wednesday night, 12 December 2008. It was replayed from 4-5 pm the following afternoon and was also available as a podcast on the ABC’s website. (It looks like this podcast is now no longer available from the ABC. Updated by MMB 16 January 2008)
06 December 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition, The Arab Revolt
Our installation is almost complete now and we will open tonight. This week a few of us have done a lot of media interviews, so it looks to be attracting a good deal of attention already.
We released some edited film footage taken by Harry Chase for Lowell Thomas during his short stay with Lawrence and the Arabs in 1918. It was provided by the Imperial War Museum as it comes from their collection. You can view this footage and read a press report on the ABC’s website here.
An interesting thing about this footage is that Lawrence appears to be wearing a black “aba” (a long, loose sleeveless outer garment of aba or fine silk worn by Bedouin Arabs). You can see one of his abas in the exhibition and this one now belongs to the Memorial. I think it is beautifully displayed, for the first time in our history, along with an “agal” (a cord that secures a headdress). Both were given to the Memorial by the widow of artist Stuart Reid, who’s work is featured in the exhibition.
Lawrence aba belonging to the Memorial read on
03 December 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Loans, Our exhibition
The painters have been here
We promise to clean this up before anyone steps in a can.
Andy & Paul unpacking IWM loans.
The quarantine inspection!
The loans were unpacked last Friday under the supervision of Andy Holbrook, the loans shipment courier who is the Collections Care Manager at the IWM, and our Quarantine Inspector from AQIS. read on
30 November 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
The many different versions of Seven pillars of wisdom are sometime difficult to understand, but since I put a small box of text about our 1926 subscribers’ edition into an article I wrote for Wartime, I have had to field a few questions about them. When we’ve solved our image attachment problem in WordPress, I’ll attach what images we have of each of them for further identification.
I’ll now attempt to summarise the differences for you here in text form:
The 1922 “Oxford Times” text
After losing almost all of his first draft of Seven Pillars of Wisdom at Reading railway station in 1919, Lawrence was urged by his friends to rewrite the lost material. He completed a revised manuscript (which he later gave to the Bodleian Library, Oxford) in May 1922. To prevent loss of the second text, he had eight copies made by the Oxford Times printing works. Five of these were bound and circulated to his wartime colleagues and other close advisers for critical review. It was never available for sale to the public. You can read about the two copies held by the British Library, including copy #2, donated by George Bernard Shaw, here (fourth paragraph). read on
29 November 2007 by Mal Booth.
Exhibitions, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition
Steve Burton checking a catalogue image closely at the printer’sWith only a week to go before we open, much progress is being made. Recently a number of us have been heavily engaged in the following list (not exhaustive) of activities:
- The final stages of the design process to do with balancing and sequencing objects, art works and images as we finalise the plans for the exhibition space.
- Re-drafting, proofing and printing all exhibition text including wall panels and captions.
- Drafting and proofing magazine articles and our four catalogue essays.
- Arranging press and other media coverage. (This includes the production of more text and the provision of more images including moving images and sound files and arranging all relevant rights and permissions. Today alone I did three interviews and so far I have two lined up for Friday 30 November.)
- Marketing the exhibition.
- Arranging public talks, tours and other public programs for the life of the exhibition.
- Arranging the exhibition launch on 6 December and all that this entails.
- And demounting the previous exhibition, To Flanders fields, 1917, and preparing the space, including the installation of our new display cases for our exhibition. read on
