The PTT Archive secures the history of postal services, telegraphy and telephony (PTT) in Switzerland. It is the historical corporate archive of Swiss Post and Swisscom, the successor companies to PTT (1849-1997).

HISTORY OF PTT

The Federal Constitution of 1848 established the centralisation of the postal system in Switzerland as a task of the Confederation. Telegraphy (1851) and telephony (1880) were also placed under the state monopoly by law. Until the mid-1920s, the postal and telegraph administrations were two separate areas. It was not until 1927 that the two administrative units were merged. PTT also transmitted radio programmes (1923) and television programmes (1953) to the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG). The increasing importance of telephony was reflected in new administrative structures: in 1936 the "Schweizerische Post-, Telegraphen- und Telephonverwaltung" was established, in 1960 the designation "Schweizerische Post-, Telephon- und Telegraphen-Betriebe" was introduced. The latter existed until liberalisation.

ORGANIZATION

Following liberalisation, PTT was split into Swiss Post and Swisscom at the end of 1997. This also had an impact on the corporate archive, which was founded in 1893. Until liberalisation, the archive was directly affiliated to the Directorate-General PTT and was located at the headquarters in Berne. Swiss Post and Swisscom decided to establish the Swiss Foundation for the History of Post and Telecommunications when dividing up the two operations. The PTT Museum was transformed into the Museum of Communication in 1997 and today also functions as the Foundation's office. In 1998, Swiss Post and Swisscom commissioned the Foundation to manage the PTT archive for it. As an autonomously archiving institution, the PTT archive and its collections are subject to the Federal Act on Archiving.