Richard Lloyd, BT heritage project manager said: Connected Earth will give people the opportunity to explore the fascinating story of communications in a dynamic and fascinating way. By reconfiguring the collection into a network of geographically distributed galleries with an online museum at the hub of the network, we are creating an experience unique in the world of heritage and culture, and a new model for how museums could operate in the future.
Galleries exhibiting the collection will be opened at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh; the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester; the Museum of London; The Science Museum, Amberley; Working Museum in Sussex and BT Goonhilly visitors centre in Cornwall. Discussions are continuing with other potential participants.
Significant pieces of the collection include the cable that Alexander Graham Bell used to demonstrate the telephone to Queen Victoria; the only surviving piece of the Colossus computer used to break German radio codes in World War Two; the first telephones and mobiles used in Britain; and original switchboards, including the one from Buckingham Palace.
