When Sir Robert Menzies gave his sister a silver serving dish that bore the message "Peace, Greenie" soon after Armistice Day in 1918, the gift marked more than just the end of World War I.
The belated wedding present carried a message of reconciliation after Isabel eloped against her family's wishes on the eve of the conflict.
Her brother was the only relative who didn't cut off contact with her after she climbed out a window and fled to marry a soldier she had fallen in love with.
Sir Menzies' great niece Annabelle Dennehy inherited the serving dish from her grandmother, who was very close to the former prime minister.
"It was something she particularly cared about, it was a precious item for her.
"She had married a man with the last name of Green, and Bob always called her 'Greenie'.
"So the 'Peace Greenie' is more than just a celebration of peace, it's also peace with the family, because the family took her back at that time."
The Menzies' are not the only family whose personal story is told through The Home Front: Australia during the First World War at the National Museum of Australia.
The exhibition was one of three projects the museum launched on Monday to mark this year's World War I centenary.
It tells the story of 23 Australians and the impact the war had on their lives, families and communities between 1914 and 1918.
Daryl Lindsay's moving sketches of wounded soldiers and author May Gibbs' postcards to soldiers on the front are among items on display.
Director Mathew Trinca said the experiences of the majority of Australians who experienced the war far from the battlefront were often overlooked.
"But life here was irrevocably bound to what was happening half the world away. The war asked much of those who were in this country and laid an enduring burden on many."
Curator Jo Bach said she wanted to "show the light and shade" of life at home during the war.
"Even at that awful time people were getting married and having babies and seeing movies.
"Even though it all happened with this dark backdrop of war ... these things are much sweeter when times are harder.
"I hope through one story or one object, people find a way into the bigger issues and the complexity of life."
Mr Trinca invited Australians to share their family's story on the museum's interactive website, Remembering 1914-18: Objects, Stories and Emotions, which will build a digital collection of the nation's World War I experience.
Thursday's launch also featured a glimpse of one of four films that will play on a screen in the museum's foyer to mark the centenary.
The footage depicted images of life on the home front and was part of an ongoing collaboration with the National Film and Sound Archive.
The free exhibition runs until October 11.
