[NJARC] Speedwell Museum in Morristown

[njarc@mailman.qth.net]

Ray - I have close to the Speedwell Museum issues for several years as my 
company - Nortel Networks - has been an active sponsor and one of my people 
sat on the former board of directors (now the board of advisors with the 
county takeover).

That museum was never dedicated to telegraphy but far more oriented to more 
broad issues. Their Morse exhibit is very bare-bones indeed and long been 
virtually neglected.. Moreover, I presented the former board with a specific 
set of recommendations which would have resulted in major improvements to the 
telegraphy issue and which would also have included a sensitive intepretation 
of that to the the whole issue of telecommunications evolution making the 
exibit poignant and interesting to the general public in addition to those of 
us with narrower interests.  My ideas would have also attracted corporate 
grants and given the museum very favorable exposure within Morris Co and the 
NY Metro area in general.  Lastly, I included several suggestions for 
cleaning up some of the meager equipment there which is starting to literally 
rot.  

No action was taken except for a courtious thank you note.  I realize they 
soon became distracted by the county takeover but this goes back nearly 2 
years. 

So Im cc'ing the new director herein as well as Tom P who was working with me 
on these issues...

In my view museums like this run the risk of either being far too narrow 
appealing only to strange people like us, or they can run the risk of simply 
fading away like what happened to Speedwell.  I have curated  a number of 
local exhibits of telegraphy which have generated exceptionally strong 
positive public reaction from youngsters as well as elders.  This can be 
done. Far too often museums lack the creativity and drive far more than they 
lack resources...

I hope Speedwell emerges in good shape because it's really quite depressed at 
the moment.  In my view its a very exciting venue - almost like the Book 
Depositary museum in Dallas.  One can not only see things of a particular 
interest but BE THERE where it happened.. That "venue thing" adds a lot..  At 
Speedwell it was extremely exciting for me to sit at the same table where 
Vail and Morse did their early development activity on the first key itself 
and all the other things..

Regards - Pete Malvasi W2PM


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