Office relics put back to work

Lawrence museum displays business items

A wooden pencil, a clumsy paper clip and an old Commodore 64 computer might not look like much, but such seemingly run-of-the-mill items chronicle decades of advances and tell stories of boundless innovations designed to make the working lives of employees easier and more productive.

That’s the idea, at least.

“The ‘Now Generation,’ they don’t have a clue about what came before the computer or fax machine or cell phone,” said Helen Krische-Dee, exhibits coordinator at the Watkins Community Museum of History. “That’s why we’re putting on this exhibit.

There are simple things — like push pins and erasers and switchboards — that show how these conveniences came into being and how we take advantage of them today.”

The exhibit, “150 Years of Office Technology,” opens today at the museum, 1047 Mass., and is scheduled to run through June 30. It is part of the museum’s ongoing celebration of Lawrence’s sesquicentennial.

Krische-Dee and others have dug deep to unearth dozens of supplies and equipment items for display in the third-floor gallery, the former office of financier J.B. Watkins. There’s the old Western Electric switchboard used by operators at the Bell Telephone office downtown and a TeleType machine that brought news and information into Lawrence from faraway places.

Also available are desktop items that at one time had been considered revolutionary, yet today reside in the no-longer-necessary file: a laminated tax-calculation chart from Mercantile Bank; a Cannon StarWriter electronic typewriter with LCD screen; and a sheet of carbon paper.

There’s even a bottle of Liquid Paper, the magical corrective substance invented in 1956 by Bette Nesmith Graham, perhaps better known as the mother of Monkees guitarist Michael Nesmith.

“It’s amazing, the changes,” said Patsy Atwell, the museum’s executive secretary, who recalls operating a keypunch machine in the 1960s for the U.S. Treasury Department; there’s one of those machines on display, too.

“It’s amazing to see all the word-processing programs now, but back then the keypunch machine was quite a deal.”

The Watkins Community Museum of History intends to make its latest exhibit, “150 Years of Office Technology,” available to Lawrence-area companies for on-site displays after June 30.Companies interested in having the exhibit displayed in their lobbies, offices or break rooms may contact Helen Krische-Dee, exhibits coordinator, at the museum, 841-4109.The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
video 6News video: Watkins Museum displays the history of the office