Secrets of Nature: Cinema and Society in Interwar Britain
This set of resources for teachers explores several key questions in early-twentieth century British history. Using the Secrets of Nature films as a starting point, they invite students to reflect on the history of changing gender roles, shifting attitudes to nature and the environment, and popular cinema culture.
Who are they intended for?
They are principally intended for History teachers in UK schools, and the activities have been designed with KS3 pupils in mind. The resources adapt new historical research to some of the principal aims of the English National Curriculum’s programme of study in History, enabling teachers and students to explore key historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference, and significance.
However, these resources are easily adaptable to different circumstances: they could be used by teachers in other countries, and many of the activities would be suitable for slightly older or younger pupils. Teachers may wish to structure whole lessons around one teaching pack, or may pick and choose individual activities from multiple different packs.
What is Secrets of Nature?
Each resource featured here is connected to the history of a series of popular nature films made in the 1920s and 1930s, Secrets of Nature. These were short films about animals and plants that were shown in cinemas before a main feature film, much as today we see adverts when we go to the cinema. As the precursors to the TV documentaries of today, they told fascinating stories about the natural world: but their history also reveals a great deal about British society at the time. You may wish to explore this website to learn more about the films and the people who made them.
How should I use these resources?
The teaching resources have been grouped into four teaching packs, each of which centres on an enquiry question. They include a range of interactive activities that are based on original primary sources. They have been prepared with flexibility in mind: teachers may wish to use all four themes to build several lessons, or could instead build one single theme into a wider lesson plan. Each teaching pack includes:
- Presentation slides for use in class, with activities and explanations
- Activities for students.
- An accompanying teachers’ document with completed activities and further guidance.
Who made them?
These resources have been co-designed by Molly Riglin (Turing House School) and Jason Langford (The Blandford School), and are based on research by Dr. Max Long at the University of Cambridge. Please email mel58@cam.ac.uk if you wish to share feedback or have any questions about the resources.
These resources were made possible by the Public Engagement Starter Fund at the University of Cambridge.
What content do they cover?
There are four teaching packs, grouped around the following titles:
Teaching Pack A: Mary Field, film pioneer follows the story of Mary Field, the director of the Secrets of Nature series. It explores changes in women’s work at the beginning of the twentieth century, and their role in the film industry at that time.
Teaching Pack B: Secrets of Nature and the London Zoo introduces students to the history of zoos and the animals held inside them, through a case study of the London Zoo and Secrets of Nature films from the 1920s and 1930s.
Teaching Pack C: Secrets of Nature and the countryside uses Secrets of Nature films to explore the anxieties of people in the 1920s and 1930s who believed that the countryside was at risk, and the origins of “conservation” as a movement in the UK.
Teaching Pack D: Going to the cinema in the 1920s and 1930s asks pupils to imagine what it felt like to go to the cinema one hundred years ago, contextualising the Secrets of Nature films within interwar film culture.
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Secrets of Nature 