Names
Communication Technology
IDs
QM00020
Offline Only
Descriptions
Postal objects include letters, postcards and stationery designed or used by Queenslanders to communicate with family, friends and colleagues in Australia and overseas. There is telegraph equipment, and telegrams, morse keys and telephones which exhibit the evolution and increasing speed of technologies across the State. Queensland Museum also has a large collection of radios and radio components, as well as televisions and, more recently, computers. The majority of the collection dates to the early twentieth century
Queensland Museum's collection of two-way communication devices runs chronologically from telegraphy in the nineteenth century, to early desk phones through to mobile handsets of the early 21st century, with a distinct focus on the late nineteenth and early twentieth century technologies used in Queensland homes and businesses. Other forms of communication such as radio and television may be more unidirectional, but they provide cohesion in a dispersed population. Through media, members of a community share news, events, jokes and music. These sources of entertainment and news provide company and information for those who are socially or physically isolated. Some important collection items include the equipment used in the first television broadcast in Queensland, Brisbane-made radios from Music Masters and Crammond, the Traeger pedal radio used in the Royal Flying Doctor's Service, and a substantial collection of electronic components vital to early 20th century radio and television.
Communication is and has been essential to a colony or state the size of Queensland. The relatively decentralised population over a vast area meant that communication technologies, like transport infrastructure, were vital to the development of the state. Communication through post, telegraph and telephone, and more recently the internet, allows two-way communication between distant people. This can lessen the void between distant loved ones, and provide vital aids in times of medical emergency or natural disaster.
Subjects
19th Century; 20th century; Communications technology; Postal service; Telegraph equipment; Television; Television components
Computers; Letters; Radio components; Radios; Stationery; Television sets
Related Collections
Dates
2012-05-30 23:40