The Enfield Exchange: Sharing National Communications Collections and Local Knowledge

像所有其他博物馆一样，科学博物馆拥有的物品和档案有可能被探索和分享，因为它们具有当地和社区的意义。其中一件物品是1925年安装在恩菲尔德镇中心的三操作员手动电话交换机，一直使用到1960年。该项目的目的是探索如何将这个物体回归到它的地理根源，从而使不同的社区群体能够访问和探索他们的遗产以及他们与一个物体和一个地方的联系。这些感兴趣的“社区”群体要么是地理位置上的——作为当地历史学家和居民的恩菲尔德当地——要么是智力上或文化上的——作为电话接线员（通常是女性）和电信专家、爱好者，（通常是）前英国电信公司或邮局的雇员。博物馆的研究人员形成了另一个（学术）团体。这些不同的群体可以带来不同的视角来探索这样一个对象的意义-文化，社区遗产-和联系-技术和个人。该项目将这些不同的社区聚集在一起，使它们之间能够相遇，从而为探索这个特定对象的价值和意义提供富有成效的方法，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。我们将在恩菲尔德博物馆展示交换设备，靠近它的原址，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。选择这台电话交换设备用于该项目有几个原因。在某种程度上，它代表了现代社会中电信意义变化的象征。现在几乎每个人都有手机，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着电话的史前时代。电话在人们家庭中的普及是缓慢的；直到20世纪60年代，这种特殊的交换设备才“退休”到科学博物馆，它们才变得无处不在。因此，它可以作为当地人回忆和回忆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以外，对大多数当地居民来说，这些大楼一般都有些神秘。在这个项目中，不同的社区可以分享他们的经验；同一事物的不同地方含义。随着过去几十年数字交换技术的引入，许多这些建筑不得不寻找新的用途。因此，虽然这个项目关注的是恩菲尔德经历的特殊性，但它也体现了适用于整个英国的一般故事。对于科学博物馆来说，这个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藏品开发新的引人入胜的展示和活动。抓住博物馆参与的议程（见Simon 2010），它寻求使用合作的方法，包括共同创造展示，以深入了解外行人如何看待过去，特别是科学和技术的过去。我们已经在我们的展览“从Oramics到Electronica：揭示电子音乐的历史”中与爱好者合作，并在“家谱”杂志的一系列文章中与家庭历史学家合作。目前的提案是我们与当地历史学家的第一次接触。相关产出将旨在通过博客、会议论文、恩菲尔德当地历史协会、当地恩菲尔德杂志、同行评议出版物、科学博物馆“公共历史”网页的专用空间和其他社交媒体传播这种新工作方式的发现。

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.