Australian nurse with a kangaroo mascot

Portraits of Pets, Portraits of People with Pets

In many countries, army regiments often kept official and unofficial pets that were popular amongst soldiers in wartime. Sometimes pets took part in military activities – that’s how messenger dogs trained for delivering messages emerged. Mascots cheered up soldiers and helped to cope with stress and personal loss, common emotions during the war. Some countries implemented the practice of bringing animals that served as national symbols to the frontier so as to remind soldiers what are they fighting for. For instance, shots below illustrate kangaroos in Egypt, that were brought by Australian army. The collection includes images from Australian War Memorial, US Library of Congress and National Library of Scotland.

The Australian War Memorial combines a shrine, a museum, and an extensive archive. Its collections, commemorative ceremonies, exhibitions and research help Australians remember, interpret, and understand the Australian experience of war and its enduring impact on Australian society. It was in August 1916 that Charles Bean, then the Australian official war correspondent, and later the official historian, developed the idea for a memorial museum. The organisation of the collection began in May 1917 under John Treloar, a young army officer who was later appointed Director of the Memorial. He laid the foundation for all of the Memorial’s collections, which include objects, works of art, photographs, film, sound recordings, official and personal records, books, maps, and ephemera. The collection includes material from 1789 to the present.