War and the Past

Military collections - any preserved group of military material, not just that held by formally constituted museums - can be a valuable source for studying history, of use to the social as well as the military historian.

Such material can be divided into what may be classed as ‘hardware’, the arms, clothing, and equipment which a soldier uses when involved in actual operations of war, or training for war, and ‘software’, that is those appurtenances, decorations and other objects of art (fine or applied) which, although put away in time of war, have nevertheless an important part to play in creating, in peacetime, the type of environment in which desirable military virtues are fostered.