The Enfield Exchange: Sharing National Communications Collections and Local Knowledge

科学博物馆，像所有其他博物馆一样，拥有的对象和档案有潜力被探索和分享，为他们的地方，社区的意义。其中一件物品是1925年安装在恩菲尔德镇中心的三人手动电话交换机，该交换机一直运行到1960年。该项目的目的是探索如何将这一物体归还其地理根源，使各种社区团体能够访问和探索他们的遗产及其与物体和地方的联系。这些感兴趣的“社区”群体要么是地理上的--作为当地历史学家和居民居住在恩菲尔德，要么是智力上或文化上的--作为接线员（通常是妇女）和电信专家、爱好者和（通常）前英国电信或邮局雇员。博物馆的研究人员形成了另一个（学术）社区。这些不同的群体可以从不同的角度来探索这种物品的意义-文化、社区遗产-以及技术和个人的联系。该项目将这些不同的社区聚集在一起，使他们能够相遇，从而提供富有成效的方式来探索这一特定对象的价值和意义，同时尝试使用物质文化将研究人员和当地社区联系起来的通用方法。我们将在靠近原址的恩菲尔德博物馆展出交换设备，以激发和激发当地人对这些物品及其对社区的意义的参与和兴奋。选择这台电话交换机设备用于本项目有几个原因。在某种程度上，它象征着现代社会电信意义的变化。现在几乎每个人都带着一部移动的手机，但这场革命只有十多年的历史。我们将在恩菲尔德展示的人工交换设备代表了电话的史前史。电话进入人们家庭的速度很慢，直到20世纪60年代才变得普遍，当时这种特殊的交换设备被“退休”到科学博物馆。因此，它可以作为当地人回忆和反思新技术如何影响日常生活的焦点对象。第二，每个社区都有电话交换大楼，除了在那里工作的人之外，大多数当地居民都对这些大楼有些神秘。在这个项目中，不同的社区可以分享他们的经验;同一件事的不同地方意义。随着过去几十年数字交换技术的引入，许多这些建筑物不得不寻找新的用途。因此，虽然这个项目是集中在特殊性的恩菲尔德的经验，它也概括了一般的故事，适用于整个英国。对于科学博物馆来说，这一应用程序正好在我们的科学，技术，工程和医学公共历史（PHoSTEM）项目的议程上。这是为了利用博物馆的收藏品开发新的吸引人的展览和活动。抓住博物馆参与的议程（见西蒙2010），它试图使用合作的方法，包括共同创造的显示，以了解外行人如何看待过去，特别是过去的科学和技术。我们已经在我们的展览“Oramics to Electronica：Revealing Histories of Electronic Music”中与爱好者合作，并在“Family Tree”杂志的一系列文章中与家族历史学家合作。目前的建议是我们与当地历史学家的第一次接触。相关产出旨在通过博客、会议论文、恩菲尔德地方历史学会、地方恩菲尔德杂志、同行评议出版物、科学博物馆“公共历史”网页上的专用空间和其他社交媒体传播这种新工作方式的成果。

The Science Museum, like all other museums, holds objects and archives which have the potential to be explored and shared for their local, community meanings. One such object is a manual three-operator telephone exchange installed in the centre of Enfield Town in 1925 and in operation there until 1960. The intention of the project is to explore how returning this object to its geographical roots can empower various community groups to access and explore their heritage and their connections to an object and a place. These interested 'community' groups are either geographically located - local to Enfield as local historians and inhabitants - or intellectually or culturally located - as telephonists (usually women) and as telecommunications specialists, enthusiasts and (often) ex BT or Post Office employees. The Museum's researchers form another (academic) community. These diverse groups can bring varying perspectives to the exploration of the meaning - cultural, community heritage - and links - technological and personal - of such an object. This project brings together these various communities, enabling encounters between them, so as to provide fruitful ways of exploring the value and meaning of this particular object and, at the same time trialling generic approaches to using material culture to link researchers and local communities. We will display the exchange equipment in Enfield Museum, close to its original location, to inspire and provoke local involvement and excitement in the objects and its meanings for the community. This piece of telephone exchange equipment has been selected for the project for several reasons. In part, it stands as a symbol of changing meanings of telecommunications in modern societies. Virtually everyone now carries a mobile phone, but that revolution is only a little over a decade old. The manual exchange equipment we will be displaying in Enfield stands for a pre-prehistory of telephony. The penetration of telephones into people's homes was slow; they did not become ubiquitous until the 1960s, the time at which this particular exchange equipment was 'retired' to the Science Museum. It can therefore be used as a focus object for local people to reminisce and recollect how new technologies impact on everyday life. Second, telephone exchange buildings are to be found in every community, generally somewhat mysterious buildings to the majority of local populations, apart from those who worked there. In this project, different communities can share their experiences; different local meanings of the same thing. With the introduction of digital switching technologies over the last decades, many of these buildings have had to find new uses. So, although this project is focussed on the particularity of the Enfield experience, it also exemplifies general stories that apply to the whole of the UK. For the Science Museum, this application sits squarely on the agenda of our Public History of Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (PHoSTEM) Project. This has been established to develop newly engaging kinds of display and event using the Museum's collections. Seizing the agenda of museum participation (see Simon 2010), it seeks to use collaborative approaches, including co-creation of displays, to gain insights into how lay people think about the past, and especially the past of science and technology. We have already worked with enthusiasts in our exhibition 'Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music' and with family historians in a series of articles for 'Family Tree' magazine. This current proposal represents our first engagement with local historians. Associated outputs will aim to disseminate the findings of this new way of working via blogging, conference papers, Enfield local history societies, local Enfield magazines, peer-reviewed publication, dedicated space on the Science Museum's 'Public History' web pages and other social media.