National treasures : saving the nation's art in World War II / Caroline Shenton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shenton, Caroline, author.

Contributor:

Hiram G. Haney Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Art and the war.

World War, 1939-1945.

Cultural property--Protection.

History.

Art treasures in war.

Great Britain.

Art treasures in war--Great Britain--History--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--Great Britain.

Cultural property--Protection--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Cultural property.

Social aspects.

Genre:

Art and the war.

Art.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 319 pages, 8 pages of plates : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London : John Murray Publishers Ltd., 2021.

Summary:

As Hitler prepared to invade Poland during the sweltering summer of 1939, men and women from across London's museums, galleries and archives formulated ingenious plans to send the nation's highest prized objects to safety. Using stately homes, tube tunnels, slate mines, castles, prisons, stone quarries and even their own homes, a dedicated bunch of unlikely misfits packed up the nation's greatest treasures and, in a race against time, dispatched them throughout the country on a series of top-secret wartime adventures. 0National Treasures highlights a moment from our history when an unlikely coalition of mild-mannered civil servants, social oddballs and metropolitan aesthetes became the front line in the heritage war against Hitler. Caroline Shenton shares the interwoven lives of ordinary people who kept calm and carried on in the most extraordinary of circumstances in their efforts to save the Nation's historic identity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Hiram G. Haney Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

1529387434

9781529387438

OCLC:

1261050753

Publisher Number:

99989711748