Curator Emeritus
- Don Robert House
Don the gardner; Don with Packard.
Mission Statement
The North American Data Communications Museum (NADCOMM) is committed to the project of collecting, displaying, and operating the equipment which has powered the communications revolutions of the twentieth century, from telegraphy to digital telephony. The collection, largely donated by committed telecommunications workers and businesses, already encompasses a wide array of machines spanning the entire history of teletype and the transition to contemporary digital modem technology.
NADCOMM's goal is to counter the present state of communications history, marked by the quick and successive obsolescence of "last year's models," by maintaining a working collection of functional equipment tracing the stages through which teletechnology has passed.
Curator Don Robert House and the NADCOMM staff believe that this project involves more than the nostalgia of the technophile. The advances in technology preserved in the NADCOMM collection have shaped not only the present state of technology but economic, social, and cultural history through their use in industry and mass media.
Whether or not we accept the premise that these advances mark the transition of world history into a wholly new postmodern "Information Age," their impact on contemporary culture makes the unique project of NADCOMM a vital one. Moreover, the fact that equipment is displayed in a functioning state means that the NADCOMM collection remains a valuable resource for hands-on technological training for the communications professional and the interested layperson alike.
Richard House
NADCOMM Public Relations
November 1997
NADCOMM - The North American Communications Museum is a fully integrated department of the San Diego Computer Museum, a Not for Profit, Public Benefit Corporation. Our museum is an educational and scientific museum. Donations are tax deductable under provisions in the Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)
"Donations are deductible as cultural items, we are not a charity. We are an educational and scientific volunteer museum."
