Technology in Postal Services, or the Postal Museum as Part of the National Technical Museum
The new exhibition “Technology in Postal Services, or the Postal Museum as Part of the National Technical Museum,” located on the ground floor of Vávra’s Mill, presents the interconnection between the history of postal services, telecommunications, and technological development in the Czech lands.
Visitors will learn about the beginnings of radio broadcasting, the history and production of postage stamps, the development of the telegraph and telephone, and the transformation of postal transport from stagecoaches to airmail. The exhibition also addresses topics such as postal architecture and major technological innovations that significantly shaped communication in modern society. “The exhibition Technology in Postal Services was primarily prepared from the most interesting objects transferred from the Postal Museum collections to the National Technical Museum in 1955. It presents the postal service not only as an institution of everyday service, but also as a key driver of technological progress and cultural memory,” explained Jan Hosťák, curator at the National Technical Museum.
On display are, for example, the first commercially available Siemens telephones, the personal telephone of Archduke Franz Ferdinand d’Este from Konopiště Castle, some of the oldest preserved spark telegraph transmitters, various plaster models of not only postal buildings—such as a model of the Postal Cheque Office in Prague’s Wenceslas Square by František Roith—and models of means of transport illustrating the development of postal delivery.
Photogallery
