Local history
View our exclusive online only exhibitions on the fascinating local history of East Yorkshire. Open 24/7 for all, click below to start your visit.
Past exhibitions
Each year our team create a range of temporary exhibitions of local social history. From the dizzy colours of 1960s East Riding and the history of local pubs to life during wartime and the local economy. Missed an exhibition? You can download past exhibition boards as a PDF.
Search past exhibitionsHumber Museums Partnership
East Riding Museums is part of the Humber Museums Partnership, joining up 18 sites across the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull and North Lincolnshire. Formed in 2014 and using funding from the Arts Council England, the three areas work together on a number of exhibitions, events and learning programmes.
Visit Humber Musuems
World War I Centenary
The First World War was one of the most significant events of the modern era and its consequences still shape the world we live in today. Between 3 August 1914 and the armistice on 11 November 1918, more than 8 million men and women of Britain and its Empire took part in this war to end all wars. Nearly 1 million of them died and 2 million were wounded.
As well as the effects on individuals who served and their families, the war resulted in major political and geographical changes, including the Russian revolution and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Turkish empires, drastically re-drawing the map of Europe. In Britain, the war led to the erosion of many social divisions and the extension of the right to vote to millions of women.
Through 2018, as part of the Humber Museums Partnership and with funding from the Arts Council, a series of events and exhibitions took place to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.
You can view an online timeline of significant events on the WW1 Timeline website.
WW1 Timeline
As part of the Centenary project, East Riding Museums compiled resources and research into the First World War. The downloads below relate to the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry and East Yorkshire Regiment. They are provided for personal interest only and should not be reproduced without prior permission. Please contact us if you need to reproduce the documents in any way.
- Transcript of the diary of Private George Lancaster, 1/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, Egypt/Palestine, 1917
- Memoirs of Leonard May of the 1/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry
- Letters from Leonard May of the 1/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry 1915-1917
- Transcript of the diary of Private Charles A Johnson of the 1/4th East Yorkshire Regiment
- Transcript of the diary of Lt Robert Stephenson of the East Riding Yeomanry, 1917
- Memoirs of Lt Frank Wood of the East Riding Yeomanry from 1969 telling the story of the Yeomanry
- Memoirs of Lt Frank Wood of the East Riding Yeomanry
- Notes from lantern slide lecture by Sergeant Harold Lyon of the East Riding Yeomanry
- Resignation letter of Lt Norman Crichton of the East Riding Yeomanry
- WW1 items held by East Riding Museums
- WW1 booklist available at East Riding Libraries
The below external websites can be useful to further your research of local soldiers and World War 1 beyond East Yorkshire.
- The Imperial War Museum (external website) has led the commemoration projects nationally
- View the British Library WW1 resources for letters, photos, poetry and interviews.
- Find My Past has Resources for military families including searching for names in records, articles and history on significant events such as Anzac Day and features collections from Britain, Australia, America and Ireland
- Billiongraves is the largest online resource for cemetery data, and is constantly growing.
- The Military Indexes is an online directory of military indexes such as soldiers, drafts cards and casualties for the United States of America. This can be useful for genealogy research.
If you are interested in family history, use the East Riding Archives guide to family history research for more online resources and local items.
Researching family and local history
All of the downloads and online exhibitions on this page can be used to further your research into family history or the local area. For full guides and tips on what else to look for, visit East Riding Archives.
East Riding Archives