The Istanbul Postal Museum, aka PTT Museum Istanbul (), is a

postal museum A postal museum is a museum dedicated to the display of objects relating to the postal service. A subcategory of postal museums are philatelic museums, which focus on philately and postage stamps. List of postal and philatelic museums Afric ...

dedicated to the historical development of

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

services in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, exhibiting related equipment and instruments as well as a collection of postage stamps. It was established in 2000 by the Turkish Post, and is situated inside the Grand Post Office building at

Sirkeci Sirkeci () is a neighborhood in the Eminönü quarter of the Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey. In the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine period, the area was known as Prosphorion Harbour, Prosphorion ().Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 57 The neighborhood b ...

quarter of

Fatih Fatih () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 15 km2, and its population is 368,227 (2022). It is home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the mayor's office, police headquarters, metro ...

district in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Museum building

The Main Post Office (), which houses the museum, is a historical four-story building designed by architect Vedat Tek (1873–1942) in First Turkish National architectural style. It was constructed between 1905 and 1909 during the last period of the

as the building of the Ministry of Post and Telegraph (). Later, it was turned into a post office. The museum has a separate entrance and occupies four stories in the western part of the building. It informs visitors about the country's history of communication and telecommunication services that officially began on October 23, 1840 with the foundation of the Ottoman Ministry of Post (). Established on May 6, 2000 by the Turkish Post, the museum consists of four sections for mail, telegraph, telephone and postage stamps. Photos taken during the construction of the building are also on exhibit.

Mail

Examples of various uniforms worn by military couriers and

mail carrier A mail carrier, also referred to as a mailman, mailwoman, mailperson, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, postperson, person of post, letter carrier (in American English), or colloquially postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Unite ...

s from the Constitutional era in the beginning of the 20th century and from the Republican era after 1923 to present time can be seen fitted on dolls and mannequins. Historical postal service items like

mail satchel A mail bag or mailbag can be one of several types of bags A bag, also known regionally as a sack, is a common tool in the form of a floppy container, typically made of cloth, leather, bamboo, paper, or plastic. The use of bags predates re ...

mail pouch A mail bag or mailbag can be one of several types of bags A bag, also known regionally as a sack, is a common tool in the form of a floppy container, typically made of cloth, leather, bamboo, paper, or plastic. The use of bags predates re ...

es,

mail sack A mail bag or mailbag can be one of several types of Satchel (bag), bags used for collecting or carrying different types of postal material. References Further reading

* * Bags Philatelic terminology Postal history Postal services ...

letter box A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. For outgoing mail, post boxes are often used for depositing the mail for collection, altho ...

es, locator maps,

franking machine A postage meter or franking machine is a mechanical device used to create and apply physical evidence of postage (or franking) to mailed items. Postage meters are regulated by a country's postal authority. A postage meter imprints an amount of ...

s from the Ottoman and Republican era are on display.

Telegraph

An inscription plate of the first telegraph office shows the year 1855. A painting depicting a battle scene from the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

(1853–1856) affiliates with the first use of telegraphy in the Ottoman Empire on September 9, 1855. A telegraph was dispatched from

Shumen Shumen (, also Romanization of Bulgarian, romanized as ''Shoumen'' or ''Šumen'', ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, tenth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and economic capital of Shumen Province. Etymology The city ...

(

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, then Ottoman Empire) to the capital Istanbul relayed in

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

. The message reads "Allied troops entered Sevastopol." () to report the victory of the Allied troops, along with the Ottomans, ending the

Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) The siege of Sevastopol (at the time called in English the siege of Sebastopol) lasted from October 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. The allies ( French, Sardinian, Ottoman, and British) landed at Eupatoria on 14 September ...

during the Crimean War. On the third floor, the telegraphy room of clerk Hamdi Bey of Monastır (today Bitola in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

) is preserved unchanged from those days with all the historical equipment. He was in charge when the Allied troops of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(1914–1918) occupied Istanbul on March 16, 1920 following the

Armistice of Mudros The Armistice of Mudros () ended hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between Ottoman Turkey and the Allies of World War I. It was signed on 30 October 1918 by the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and British Admiral Somerset ...

. He sent messages to Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

using Morse telegraph about the situation in Istanbul until he was stopped by the enemy soldiers, who entered the post office building. Later period's

teletypewriter A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...

s and an original

telex machine Telex is a telecommunication system that allows text-based messages to be sent and received by teleprinter over telephone lines. The term "telex" may refer to the service, the network, the devices, or a message sent using these. Telex emerged i ...

is on exhibit as well.

Telephone

The second floor hosts various early telephone instruments and related equipment. There are telephones with hand-cranked

magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

generator or battery-powered,

rotary dial A rotary dial is a component of a telephone or a telephone switchboard that implements a signaling technology in telecommunications known as pulse dialing. It is used when initiating a telephone call to transmit the destination telephone numb ...

and pushbutton dial telephones in both wall and desk versions, also produced in Turkish PTT factories,

telephone switchboard A telephone switchboard is a device used to connect circuits of telephones to establish telephone calls between users or other switchboards. The switchboard is an essential component of a manual telephone exchange, and is operated by switchboard ...

s, elektromechanical automatic telephone exchanges Also an exact replica of

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

's (1842–1922) original telephone from 1882 is exhibited here. It was a gift from the Alcatel-Bell company in 1990 on the 150th anniversary of Turkish Post's establishment. An example of

can be seen, which enabled to manually connect telephone subscribers. The installation of the first electromechanical automatic telephone exchange in Turkey was accomplished on October 23, 1931 making the

switchboard operator In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated syste ...

s superfluous.

Postage stamps

The first Turkish postage stamp was issued by Post Minister

Agah Efendi Çapanzade or Çapanoğlu Agah Efendi (March 31, 1832 – January 2, 1886) was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish Civil service, civil servant, writer and newspaper editor who, along with his colleague İbrahim Şinasi, published ...

(1832–1885) on January 13, 1863. It was printed at the Ottoman Imperial Mint on thin cigarette paper. Postage stamp issues of

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member states and is headquartered in Be ...

's member countries are also on display along with the stamps of the Ottoman and Republican era as well as first day covers issued after the 1950s.

Location and access

The museum is situated inside the Main Post Office building in Yeni Postane Cad. 25 in Sirkeci quarter of Fatih district in Istanbul. It is open between 08:30-17:30 on workdays only. Admission is free of charge. Museum's vsit is guided by an employee.

Gallery

File:Istanbul Postal Museum 7332.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Part of facade File:Istanbul Postal Museum 6811.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Central Hall File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4982.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Ceiling File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4969.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Architecture File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4974.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4976.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Postal globe File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4979.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Telephone File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4988.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Switchboard File:Istanbul Postal Museum 4986.jpg, Istanbul Postal Museum Telegraph

References

{{Museums in Istanbul

Postal Museum A postal museum is a museum dedicated to the display of objects relating to the postal service. A subcategory of postal museums are philatelic museums, which focus on philately and postage stamps. List of postal and philatelic museums Afric ...

2000 establishments in Turkey

Fatih Postal museums Philatelic museums Postal system of Turkey Telecommunications in Turkey Museums established in 2000 Ottoman architecture in Istanbul First Turkish National architecture Government buildings completed in 1909 Office buildings completed in 1909