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Main Categories

The collection is divided into six main categories: Post & Transport, Philately, Telegraphy & Telephony, Radio & Television, Computers & Digital Culture, Art & Communication.

Post & Transport

Thousands of objects tell the lively history of the Swiss postal service: from 19th-century military uniforms worn by stage-coachmen to the colourful cycling jerseys of the professional “Swiss Post” cycling team in 2000, and from the 1894 horse-drawn coach that operated along the Meiringen - Gletsch route to the articulated busses travelling under the Swiss Post banner from 1973.

 

CONTACT

Nora Haldemann
Curator of collections in postal- and transportation history

Nicolas Kessler
Curator of collections in postal- and transportation history

Email: ppv(at)mfk.ch

Philately

Basle Dove or Penny Black, William Tell or Princess Diana, Globi or Mickey Mouse? Every stamp tells a story and is a reflection of its time. The Museum of Communication is home to one of the world's largest and most valuable collections of national and international stamps. The publicly accessible part of the philately collection also has an international appeal. The collection has many rarities which are integrated into the exhibition in the study room on the second basement floor.

 

CONTACT

Nora Haldemann
Curator of the Philately Collection & Libraries

Nicolas Kessler
Curator of the Philately Collection & Libraries

Email: ppv(at)mfk.ch

Telegraphy & Telephony

Since Samuel Morse linked the cities of Baltimore and Washington with his electric telegraph in 1844, a plethora of new devices has revolutionised communication between people. The collection, with its thousands of items, documents the stages in the development up until today’s information society.

 

CONTACT

Juri Jaquemet
Curator of the Information and Communication Technology Collection
Phone: 031 357 55 44     
Email: j.jaquemet(at)mfk.ch

Radio & TV

In addition to rare radio and TV sets, early TV broadcasting vans and studio equipment highlight the history of Radio and TV. The collection documents how radio became a “window to the world” in the 1930s and how in the 1950s TV brought the world into the living room.

 

CONTACT

Juri Jaquemet
Curator of the Information and Communication Technology Collection
Phone: 031 357 55 44     
Email: j.jaquemet(at)mfk.ch

Computer & Digital Culture

It is not so long ago that electromechanical mainframe computers were fed punch cards to deal with mathematical problems involving large sets of numbers. Today, communication without the help of incredibly light micro computers would be unthinkable. The collection documents the technological changes from the mid-20th century up to the present day.

 

CONTACT

Juri Jaquemet
Curator of the Information and Communication Technology Collection
Phone: 031 357 55 44     
Email: j.jaquemet(at)mfk.ch

Art & Communication

The art collection highlights the multi-faceted dialogue between art and communication. The collection is made up of both national and international works of art from the area of visual arts and from the realm of New Media. This also includes the area of Mail art and the archives of Swiss artists H.R. Fricker and Marcel Stüssi.

 

CONTACT

Johannes Sauter
Head of Collections
Phone: 031 357 55 12
Email: j.sauter(at)mfk.ch

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