Curator Sean Brosnahan and exhibition developer William McKee have created video profiles that tell the tale of 26 Otago men and women who died as a result of war.
Researched by Mr Brosnahan and narrated by Mr McKee, the videos use photos, film, paintings, portraits and contemporary newspaper cuttings to provide an account of each person’s life and service, as well as the circumstances of their death.
The aim of each film was to provide additional context that helped reveal who these people were.
"What did they do, you know, were they members of a church group or a singing group, a sports club?"
"It is just one way we thought we can try to inform people."
Since the room opened about 12 years ago, 500 additional names have been collected.
For other names there was quite a bit of detail, including information gleaned from internal research as well as contributions from family members getting in touch to share stories and photos with the museum.
"And of course, obviously the harrowing thing about all these is they all ended up one way, unfortunately."
"It is not just soldiers, it is nurses and there are some civilians here who got caught up as well around the world, so it is really people that have died as a result of war."
The names of people ranged from those caught up in the South African War in the dying days of the 19th century and the dawning of the 20th century, right up to the Vietnam War of the 1960s and ’70s.
Mr McKee said there were plans to replace the books with electronic tablets that would enable a richer experience and make it easier to search for names.
"These people were not just a name on a wall or on a memorial, they were like us. They had interests, they had loved ones at home."
