Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum was founded on 5 March 1917, when the British War Cabinet approved a proposal by Sir Alfred Mond MP to create a national war museum while the First World War was still being fought, so that the experiences of every part of society, civilian and military, would be recorded rather than left to memory. It was renamed from the National War Museum to the Imperial War Museum later the same year, reflecting growing interest from the governments of the British Dominions, and was formally established by Act of Parliament in 1920, opening to the public at the Crystal Palace on 9 June 1920 with more than 150,000 items already collected. It has since grown into a network of five branches in England, and remains one of the principal institutional sources on the First and Second World Wars and later conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth.