Rural life

This photograph shows sheep being 'washed'. The sheep were manoeuvred through a channel filled with water and sometimes added chemicals. This process was used to clean their fleeces before shearing or to prevent infestation by parasites.

The photograph was registered for copyright protection by Susanna Cooke on 17 July 1906. She gives her address as Hambleton, Oakham for this picture, but later her address is given as Sudbourn, Orford, Suffolk. She registered twelve other photographs between 1904 and 1909.

This poster shows an idyllic rural scene of dairy cows grazing on lush green grass, with thatched farm buildings in the background. It was made by Clare Leighton, an artist and illustrator who trained at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. She was particularly well known for her wood engravings.

The poster was commissioned by the Empire Marketing Board, which operated between May 1926 and September 1933. Its function was to promote trade between Britain and its colonies, and it was responsible for the commissioning of artworks by female artists such as the Irish painter Margaret Clarke, the illustrator Irene Hawkes and graphic designer Rosemary Ellis, as well as male artists such as MacDonald Gill, Paul Nash and Frank Newbould.

This photograph, taken in 1937, shows a girl feeding pigs at Aylesbury Borstal for girls. Borstals were detention centres for young offenders aged 16 to 21. Inmates took part in work training – such as the farm work shown here – as well as physical exercise and education.

Borstals were part of the prison system, and in fact Aylesbury Borstal for Girls was housed in a wing of Aylesbury Prison. Borstals and prisons were the responsibility of the Prison Commission at this time, with the Home Office being responsible for high level appointments in the Commission and individual prisons.

This drawing by artist Laura Knight was commissioned by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War. It shows a 'land girl' hitching up a plough to a team of horses.

Laura Knight had an established career before the war. In 1929 she was made a Dame, and in 1936 she became the first woman to become a full member of the Royal Academy. After the war, Knight took on a unique assignment, painting the war crimes trial at Nuremberg.

This poster is one of many pieces of original wartime propaganda art, produced by many artists in every kind of medium. Their work promoted government campaigns from recruitment and volunteering to recycling and saving fuel.