Introduction
Museums are places that not only help people to discover their past but also promote a better understanding of the present and give insight into future development. The Mohammed bin Jassim House is a museum that allows its visitors to travel back in time and experience the unique heritage of Doha (“Mohammed bin Jassim House”). Although its primary mission is demonstrating the development of the architecture in the area, the museum also offers exhibits of various objects that were found during excavation works that were performed on the site of Msheireb Downtown Doha. Adding a vintage pager into the museum’s exhibition seems reasonable since this device used to play an important role in the citizens’ lives several decades ago.
The Rationale for the Selected Acquisition
A vintage pager will push the narrative of the museum in a new direction. Namely, it will show the development of technology and the use of technological devices in the area. Nowadays, all people have mobile phones or smartphones that allow exploiting a number of functions. However, it is necessary to show the museum’s visitors the predecessor of modern smartphones and explain how citizens used to cope with emergency announcements earlier, when they could not exchange video messages and photos or even make an immediate call to someone.
Currently, the Mohammed bin Jassim House displays such important firsts as the first café, bank, pharmacy, and hotel (“Mohammed bin Jassim House”). However, to make the picture of the past complete and show the transformation that the area has gone through, it is crucial to exhibit devices that people used several decades ago.
Since there is no exhibit in the museum that would be dedicated to devices, it will be necessary to create a new display for such items. The most suitable option seems to be a display containing old-fashioned devices that citizens used thirty-forty years ago for entertainment and communication. For this purpose, such items as CD-players, walkie-talkies, vinyl record players, pagers, and some other things could be collected. This exhibit would perform a twofold function for visitors.
For one thing, older people would feel nostalgic and could reminisce about their youth and the things that used to make their lives more comfortable and exciting. For another thing, this display would teach younger generations about the items that their parents and grandparents used to own. It would be useful for young people to learn about the past, although not such a distant one. They would cherish their opportunities much more if they realized that their predecessors could have created so many things with such limited possibilities.
In the context of the museum, the meaning created about the vintage pager would be associated with the development of Msheireb Downtown Doha. Upon learning new and exciting factors about the neighborhood, visitors would also learn that the people who created the magnificent buildings and developed the region did not have many technological devices at hand but still, they managed to do an outstanding job. It is highly significant for each person to know their history. Without the knowledge and appreciation of one’s past, there cannot be an appropriate recognition of the present. Thus, including a vintage pager in one of the museum’s exhibit areas will promote the recognition of past achievements and inspire the belief in the future success.
Object Label
Name: BT Message Master Series 1200 Pager, 1980-2000 (see fig. 1)
Maker: British Telecom, Japan
Date: 1980-2000
Material: plastic
Dimensions: unknown
The model of the pager is 31D, it has a rectangular screen, and there are two silver buttons and a clip (“BT Message Master Series 1200 Pager, 1980-2000”). This wireless device was predominantly used for receiving brief messages. Pagers were rather popular in the 1970s-1990s, put their popularity decreased with the advent of mobile phones. Pagers were used by workers who had to travel a lot but needed to stay in touch with their offices.
Short messages were sent to a pager, and then, the receiver could call the sender to discuss some important details of work. Pagers were rather popular with medical workers and emergency service employees (“BT Message Master Series 1200 Pager, 1980-2000”). Although mobile phones replaced pagers, the latter could boast higher resistance to network overload, and their users considered them highly reliable. Therefore, since pagers used to play a crucial role in the people’s lives, the visitors of the Mohammed bin Jassim House should have an opportunity to learn about them.
Conclusion
Including a vintage pager in Mohammed bin Jassim House’s exhibit area is a reasonable solution. The museum focuses on demonstrating the way people lived and the achievements they made in the past. Those achievements were what promoted the high-quality present-day life in the area. Therefore, it is crucial to include in the exhibition the technological devices that played an essential part in citizens’ lives several decades ago. Adding a vintage pager into the museum’s exhibit seems a reasonable idea since such a display can promote visitors’ understanding of life in the past. This addition would be specifically valuable for the youngest visitors who cannot imagine their existence without a large number of multifunctional gadgets.
Works Cited
“BT Message Master Series 1200 Pager, 1980-2000.” Science Museum Group, n.d. Web.
“Mohammed bin Jassim House.” Msheireb Museums, 2018. Web.