Material Histories of Knowledge in Transit in Museum Settings

The objects which make up communications history are notoriously mobile and have benefited from the framework of knowledge in transit. The tangible history of communications media are a key component of many science collections: telephones, telegraphs, radios, televisions, photographs are all key collections categories in science and technology collections. But if the medium is the message, then how are museums working to collect the multiple mobiles that move between communications technologies: the messages, the images, the recordings? Visual and auditory output are typically the purview of non­science related museums: the British Film Institute, or the National Portrait Gallery, for example. As Sam Alberti has recently written, “Science Museums have never been very good at collecting time­bound media: they collect telephones, for example, but not the conversations they once channeled.” 1

This paper looks at the how the concept of knowledge in transit has shifted how we can think about the material and epistemological consequences of media objects within museum settings. The paper will focus on communications collections within science and technology collections in the United Kingdom as a case study for how a situated understanding of knowledge in transit within museum settings can shape how we research, collect, and rationalize communications collections. Focusing on photographic, telephonic and printing collections this paper will explore how looking at the role of media as it moves across space, has helped us better understand the role of communications technologies in a museological context where object histories are typically static, and locationally dependent.

1. Albert, Samuel J.M.M., Curious Devices and Mighty Machines. Exploring Science Museums. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.