National Portrait Gallery

In the anniversary years of 2018 and 2019, it is important to take a close look at the war cemeteries commemorating the world war conflicts. These sites are crucial places for sustaining and even creating transnational, collective memory. By studying the memory work the war cemeteries accomplish, scholars have increased their knowledge of and understanding about these driving, foundational power structures. The following essays focus on the construction, design and reception of war cemeteries, and together the essays reveal complex layering of social, political and cultural contexts of these crucial sites of war memory.

This study discusses recent a technical study of 20 panel paintings in the King's Room at Westwood Manor, which form one of the few early modern British portrait sets to remain displayed within a holistic decorative scheme. Technical evidence was interpreted to elucidate the relationship between the portrait set and the rest of the decorative scheme, and that among the paintings in the set, including their construction and condition. Evidence for the use of different styles of grounds, drawing and paint application suggests that the portraits were executed by different hands or workshops, while the range of materials is consistent with seventeenth-century painting practice. Technical and documentary evidence suggest that the King's Room was constructed from the portrait panels from Keevil Manor, another Tudor property, and oak panelling boards from other sources. The study places the King's Room at Westwood in the context of the early twentieth-century antiquarian trend to alter English manor houses. Special conservation issues related to the historic and current function of the King's Room are discussed, including aspects of deterioration and former treatment of the room and portrait panels.

The purpose of this panel is to provide an exploratory review of the Mexican e-government efforts in general and the Mexican Federal Portals in particular. Panelists are Experts, web masters, and top level public officials, who will provide comments about the Mexican experience of reaching citizens online using technology. Some questions that this panel should address are:• What are the Mexican portals doing in terms of information exchange?• What are the most important Mexican policies to promote e-government in state and municipal web sites?• What are the challenges faced by the people responsible of Mexican portals?• What is a successful Web site in Mexico? Which are its main characteristics?From these starting questions, we want to create a good discussion that derives in additional topics for e-government research as an important tool to improve Mexican public administration and other governments in similar situations.

Advances in digital image processing lead to ways of representing images and image-collections that approach the linguistic properties of concision and summary. However, important logical differences remain. Indexing is a form of summary representation with problematic application to visual material. “Salient stills” and “film strips” as representations of video clips have been suggested as solutions. Yet problems with abstract nonverbal representations return us to the theoretical stance of Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes: images are approached textually.

This study concerns the analysis and treatment of a private collection of war photographs published in 1942 using a photomechanical process. It also seeks to establish a system for the safe treatment of physically damaged and moisture-sensitive large-format material. The problems were diverse, including staining, residues and structural deformation, and there was evidence that the paper surface was sensitive to any form of moisture. The paper supports provided some stability, enabling essential technical analysis and remedial conservation treatment to be carried out.