Michaelmas Term exhibition – Inter-War Balliol

Balliol’s exhibition for Michaelmas Term 2024 covers an often overlooked period in the College’s history – the years between the two world wars, 1919–1938. Using photographs, letters, publications, and ephemera from the College’s historic collections, the displays examine the development of College life during this period through a number of lenses – the student experience and the expansion of the College; gradually widening in view to include the increasing professionalisation of Oxford’s bureaucracy, the Masters of the time and their interactions with the wider political landscape, through to notable Balliol alumni and their careers. Displayed in the beautiful surrounding of St Cross Church, the exhibition places these developments in context, tracing social and cultural influences from the aftermath of World War I through to the pre-war tension of 1939.