The first organization Heath suggests collaboration
with is the one he works for.
Students in UO programs such as Arts and Administration,
he says, could benefit from involvement with the museum,
helping it keep more constant hours, building a functional
web presence or even developing a phone app.
Heath also mentions the Lane County Historical
Society, which has formidable archives and its own staff
— “but they’re struggling like everybody else.”
However worthy the contents, Heath notes a general
struggle among small museums in recent years because
“the visiting public has changed.” Instead of touring
historic places and viewing artifacts in person, “now
people can access them through Google.”
What this means, in effect, is that museums are
pushed to be more interactive, offering information and
experiences that internet research can’t.
In its own ways, the Telephone Pioneer Museum is
already accomplishing this. When a group of Weebelo Boy
Scouts visited last month, Knight says they played happily
at the switchboard for more than an hour. “They must have
thought they were on the Enterprise or something!”
These hands-on convergences of old and young are the
museum’s lifeblood, and Heath says they’re not just fun
but integral to teaching younger generations how modern
American culture was built.
The atmosphere in which the telephone came of age,
Heath says, was “one of increased empowerment and
spatial mobility.” It accompanied an increase in electrified
homes and automobile use, as well as a pre-Depression
prosperity that facilitated exploration.
“In terms of American culture, the telephone is a key,
iconic artifact,” he says, “and we shouldn’t just put it in the
trash heap of time.”
The Telephone Pioneer Museum’s significance —
historically and culturally — all circles back to Judy
Knight and the others who sit at the desk. They’re the ones
who are happy to see you, who are always poised to talk
about the good old days without trivializing them.
“They opened the museum because, at least when I
worked for the company … we were really family,” says
Knight. “And I think they wanted to see something to
honor and remind people of what they’d been through.”
Whatever the museum’s future, it’s already a thing to
be treasured. Its contents chronicle the history of human
communication in this country, of ordinary interactions.
Hardworking people like Knight are what bring it to life,
and hopefully those are the same kind of people who will
step up to keep it alive. ■
PORTLAND PHONE BOOK, 1878
OTEP
WITH
DOWNFALL 2012,
TERROR UNIVERSAL,
THIRA &
30 POUND TEST
2/8/15 • 8:00 PM • $15 ADV/ WITH
$17 MARK
D.O.S. HUFF
The Telephone Pioneer Museum is open from 10 am to 2 pm most Thursdays.
Free admission. Call 484-8268 for more information.
MUSIC • DANCE • FOOD • MARKET • MARTIAL ARTS • KIDS’ CARNIVAL
CON
BRIO
2/9/15 • DOORS 8 PM • $8 ADV/ $10 D.O.S.
THE FLOOZIES SIR MIX-A-LOT
WITH MANIC FOCUS
2/10/15 • 8 PM • $12 ADV/ $15 D.O.S.
QUICK & EASY BOYS
2/12/15
2/13/15 • • 9:30
9 PM PM • • $12
$21 ADV/
ADV/ $14
$23 D.O.S.
D.O.S.
2/12/15 • 9:30 PM • $21 ADV/ $23 D.O.S.
ANDY
SHAUF
Lane Events Center, Eugene Sat. 10am-7pm, Sun. 10am-6pm
Adults $6/day, $10 both days, 12 & Under Free
Presented by Eugene-Springfield Asian Council www.asiancelebraon.org
2/15/15 • 9 PM • $12 ADV/ $14 D.O.S.
8th & Charnelton 541−338−9333 CozmicPresents.com
eugeneweekly.com • February 5, 2015
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