The Photographs of Florence Farmborough on the Russian Front during the First World War
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 7:00 PM
Description
Hilary Roberts, Independent Curator of Photography/ former Head Curator of Photography at Imperial War Museums (IWM), Farnham, United Kingdom
The Photographs of Florence Farmborough on the Russian Front during the First World War
This presentation will introduce the wartime photography of Florence Farmborough (1887–1978). Farmborough was a British teacher, nurse, photographer, writer, and traveller. In 1908, Farmborough went to work as a governess in Kyiv, Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia). She was just 21 years old. Two years later, Farmborough moved to Moscow, where she was employed as an English tutor and companion to the daughters of Dr. Pavel Usov, a Russian heart surgeon. When the First World War broke out 1914, Farmborough chose to train as a Red Cross nurse at the Golitsyn military hospital in Moscow. She served with a Russian mobile army surgical hospital on the Russian front in Poland, Austria, and Romania, before the Revolution forced her to flee Russia in 1918. Farmborough documented these experiences with her glass-plate camera and in her diary. These records are now preserved as the Florence Farmborough Collection by Imperial War Museums, Britain’s national museum of modern conflict. The collection offers a rare insight into the Russian experience of war from a British woman’s perspective.
Hilary Roberts is a former Head Curator of Photography at Imperial War Museums (IWM), Britain’s national museum of modern conflict. She studied at universities in England and Germany before joining IWM’s Photograph Archive as a junior curator in 1980. As Head Curator (1996 – 2013), she oversaw the development of IWM’s photographic collections and the Archive’s transition to digital photography before moving to a research role. A specialist in the history and practice of conflict photography, Roberts collaborates with photographers, curators, researchers and writers around the world. Most recently, she was a consultant to LEE, a film about the war photography of Lee Miller starring Kate Winslet.
Since retiring from IWM in 2022, Roberts has worked as an independent curator. She is an expert advisor to the VII Foundation, the Royal Photographic Society and the Canon Ambassadors programme. Roberts was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s Award for Curatorship in 2017.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Roberts, Hilary, "The Photographs of Florence Farmborough on the Russian Front during the First World War" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 54.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/54
The Photographs of Florence Farmborough on the Russian Front during the First World War
Hilary Roberts, Independent Curator of Photography/ former Head Curator of Photography at Imperial War Museums (IWM), Farnham, United Kingdom
The Photographs of Florence Farmborough on the Russian Front during the First World War
This presentation will introduce the wartime photography of Florence Farmborough (1887–1978). Farmborough was a British teacher, nurse, photographer, writer, and traveller. In 1908, Farmborough went to work as a governess in Kyiv, Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia). She was just 21 years old. Two years later, Farmborough moved to Moscow, where she was employed as an English tutor and companion to the daughters of Dr. Pavel Usov, a Russian heart surgeon. When the First World War broke out 1914, Farmborough chose to train as a Red Cross nurse at the Golitsyn military hospital in Moscow. She served with a Russian mobile army surgical hospital on the Russian front in Poland, Austria, and Romania, before the Revolution forced her to flee Russia in 1918. Farmborough documented these experiences with her glass-plate camera and in her diary. These records are now preserved as the Florence Farmborough Collection by Imperial War Museums, Britain’s national museum of modern conflict. The collection offers a rare insight into the Russian experience of war from a British woman’s perspective.
Hilary Roberts is a former Head Curator of Photography at Imperial War Museums (IWM), Britain’s national museum of modern conflict. She studied at universities in England and Germany before joining IWM’s Photograph Archive as a junior curator in 1980. As Head Curator (1996 – 2013), she oversaw the development of IWM’s photographic collections and the Archive’s transition to digital photography before moving to a research role. A specialist in the history and practice of conflict photography, Roberts collaborates with photographers, curators, researchers and writers around the world. Most recently, she was a consultant to LEE, a film about the war photography of Lee Miller starring Kate Winslet.
Since retiring from IWM in 2022, Roberts has worked as an independent curator. She is an expert advisor to the VII Foundation, the Royal Photographic Society and the Canon Ambassadors programme. Roberts was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s Award for Curatorship in 2017.
Comments
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