Travelling to the Front Region

In 1917, even before the Armistice, Michelin published the first travel guide to the front region. Stimulated by the growing number of visitors, a network of hotels, restaurants, tour operators and events emerged. Photographs, souvenirs, travel brochures, posters and ego documents testify to the history of tourism in the region. The first tourists visited the place where a loved one was killed or wounded. Soldiers who had fought in the trenches also visited the region. The introduction of paid leave in 1936 and the introduction of school trips stimulated travel to Ypres and the region. The programs included visits to historic sites where fighting took place during the First World War.

Museums full of memories of World War I soon became major attractions. In the 1920s, several museums were established in Ypres and the region, including the forerunners of the In Flanders Fields Museum. A new city museum was established in 1927. Following an appeal by the City of Ypres, the collection of war heritage started immediately. The first collection items were official portraits and utensils of important wartime figures.

Almost a century of collecting, results in an extensive, varied collection that testifies to changing visions and approaches to collecting.

25 years In Flanders Fields Museum

On 25 April 1998, the In Flanders Fields Museum opened its doors, a new life for the former Yper Salient 14-18 Memorial Museum. The museum was named after the poem In Flanders Fields written by Canadian military doctor and poet John McCrae in May 1915 at his aid post near Ypres. The first museum poster from 1998 underlines what the museum stood for:

The In Flanders Fields Museum is at the heart of World War I. Here you become a soldier, nurse, child, Ypres resident, priest or farmer and experience it all with your own eyes: devastation, horror and hope, at the front line or in the city. At the In Flanders Fields Museum, World War I gets under your skin'.

This slogan and the image of the poster illustrates the approach which was reflected in the museum presentation at the time. The evolution of gas masks was evoked artistically with a sound and light show. Some of these images have been preserved and can be seen at this exhibition. Visitors were given an identification card that led them through life stories set during the war years and which provoked an innovative museum visit. Ahead of the centenary, the main exhibition was vamped in 2012, with a major upgrade in 2021. The card was replaced by a poppy bracelet. Many high-profile temporary exhibitions have been organised since 1998. From the outset, the In Flanders Fields Museum guaranteed an innovative view on the First World War.

Almost a century of collecting

In Flanders Fields Museum opened in 1998 but the first museum pieces were collected as early as 1927. This collection is not only a reference collection on the First World War, it also bears witness to changing visions in collecting war heritage.

Before 1914, Ypres was home to one of the country's oldest museums with a particularly rich art collection. During World War I, this museum and its collection were completely destroyed. When the new municipal museum was established in 1927, an appeal was launched to donate memorial objects of the First World War.

Protagonists from the war period were written to ask them to donate photographs or other pieces to the museum. World leaders from all over the world sent photos. These are mostly signed state portraits, but there are also surprising images. The then French prime minister Georges Clemenceau donated a portrait showing him musing in a garden. British commander-in-chief Sir Douglas Haig and his wife donated not only a portrait but also the tea set he used during the war years. Remarkably, these donations mainly included everyday utensils and personal items.

These donations are the start of the City of Ypres' war heritage collection, today the collection managed by the In Flanders Fields Museum.

From war souvenirs to museums

After World War I a lot of museums and other initiatives emerged in the former front region where war souvenirs were displayed or sold. British veteran Leo Murphy (Manchester, 1891- Ypres, 1951) opened the first war museum in the centre of Ypres. This museum stood out from other initiatives because of its central location in the city centre and his approach. He promoted his museum with posters and advertisements, visitors had to buy a ticket and he provided guided tours. At the time, many British tourists were visiting Ypres and the region. These tourists were on a pilgrimage to the place where a loved one had died in the war. Murphy not only opened a museum, he started 'The British Touring and Information Bureau' on the Grote Markt in Ypres, offering these tourists travel packages and guided tours to the former battlefields.

Numerous other museums were also established, such as the Hill 60 museum. Central to this museum were a series of original stereo viewers where visitors could view war images in 3D. Ypres professional photographers Antony captured the impact of the war on the town and region during and after the war. They published numerous pictures as postcards. In their photo shop, they sold these images as souvenirs to tourists. The photographs of the Antony family, part of the Hill 60 Museum's collection and memories of Murphy's museum such as admission tickets and a poster are kept in the museum collection of the In Flanders Fields Museum.

Travel guides to the battlefields

Even before the end of World War I, people travelled to the front zones. The first travellers were mainly pilgrims, looking for the place where a loved one had been killed or wounded. In 1917 a first Michelin guide to the front zones of World War I was published. This became a series to the various western front zones, including Ypres and the Yser region. In 1900, tyre manufacturer Michelin published the first 'Michelin guide'. These travel guides evolved into the travel guide for many generations of tourists. Even for travellers to the front region, these publications guided travellers to the most important places, sites, monuments, cemeteries and museums. In the 1920s, tips for hotels and restaurants were included.

From the 1970s, guidebooks written by Major and Mr Holt became important reference works. In their 'Battlefield Guide's' they published information on nomuments, cemeteries, the landscape and museums. Remembrance rituals such as the daily Last Post, Anzac Day or the 11th November commemorations were included.

Since the end of World War I, numerous organisers of guided tours, excursions and group tours have been established in Ypres and the region.

Souvenirs

The former front region is visited by tourists for many different reasons. The first visitors mainly visited the region in search of the place where a loved one died, they visited the cemetery and the places where father, son or other family member experienced the war. Even today, many family members visit these places. Or they search for the name of a relative at one of the Missing Memorials. Numerous family albums recorded this visit. Visitors posed in front of the ruins of the Cloth Halls, in the ruined landscape, in trenches and near weapons of war. Some took a piece of stone from a ruin or a bit of earth from near the cemetery as a tangible souvenir. Souvenirs from the rubble were also taken by soldiers during the war years. In recent decades, such souvenirs were regularly brought back to Ypres and were donated to the museum up till today.

Inspired by increasing tourism, souvenirs were offered for sale by creative entrepreneurs. Souvenirs were made with war  trash such as shell cases or bullets. Often iconic buildings and dates were engraved but also religious symbols. A weapon, which was a symbol of destruction, thus took on other meanings of protection or commemoration. Insignia, jewellery, postcards and numerous other souvenirs passed smoothly over the counter.