The War Artists' Archive is an unparalleled resource for the study of British art of the two World Wars. It comprises well over 1,000 files documenting the official commissioning and purchase of war art relating to these conflicts, including correspondence with individual artists as well as administrative files covering matters such as policy, committee meetings and exhibitions.

During the First World War, two main streams of activity produced official art. The Imperial War Museum, established by Act of Parliament in 1917, was charged with collecting all kinds of material documenting the War, including art. Meanwhile a succession of government committees were also commissioning and purchasing art for propaganda, memorial and record purposes.At the end of the war, these collections were combined at the Imperial War Museum, and the records of all these activities were also brought together.

A more structured approach to official picture collecting was taken during the Second World War, when the Artists Advisory Committee, chaired by Sir Kenneth Clark, was established, soon after the outbreak. As in the previous war, the pictures collected were exhibited in London and in shows touring nationally and internationally. When the Committee was wound down, its duties transferred to the IWM, who administered the final phase of distributing the works to museums and galleries across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

The records document many aspects of the relationship between art and war. War acted as a stimulus for creativity, whether to convey its true horror, to harness its power, or to record the daily reality, from soldiers to munitions workers. For many artists, the war had a significant impact on the development of their careers, for better or worse. For example, Paul Nash's experiences in the First World War gave new power to his emergent artistic voice. Other artists suffered from the limited working opportunities, and repeatedly tried to secure one of the few salaried artist posts. Official artists, such as Anthony Gross in the Second World War, found their horizons opened by their travels on what Gross called "a governmental magic carpet", in a way that might never have been possible in peace time.

The records are a unique source for many other subjects, including the involvement of women artists and women's experiences on the Home Front or in the services; official attitudes to art, which, in many cases, were much less conservative than might be supposed; the role of art in wartime, and public attitudes to it; and the history of the Imperial War Museum and its own collecting policies.