Fading Away: Saving Your Electronic Memories
at the Canada Science and Technology Museum

Ottawa — The Canada Science and Technology Museum is pleased to announce that the exhibition Fading Away: Saving Your Electronic Memories, presented at Library and Archives Canada earlier this month, will be on display at the Museum starting Thursday, September 25, 2003.

A collaboration between the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Canada Science and Technology Museum, this exhibition highlights the history and importance of preserving audiovisual media. Drawing on the Museum’s extensive collections and curatorial resources, the exhibition’s artefacts and displays present an overview of the history of electronic record preservation. Visitors are encouraged to examine the various forms of record storage and discover the evolution in data recording that has allowed today’s memories to withstand the test of time.

Among the artefacts of note in this exhibition are steel tape audio recordings made on a Marconi-Stille recorder or Blattnerphone. Recorded during the1940's, these tapes contain wartime broadcasts from England. What makes them so incredible is that Canada’s only Blattnerphone didn’t work and the contents of these tapes went unknown for decades. Fortunately, the tapes were played back on a restored Blattnerphone located in Australia, and re-recorded onto modern media in1992. Visitors can now hear voices from a different time and place: truly incredible examples of audiovisual history. This exhibition is included with regular admission and will remain on display at the Canada Science and Technology Museum through February, 2004.

With numerous temporary and permanent exhibitions, special events, interactive displays and demonstrations, the Canada Science and Technology Museum celebrates Canada’s rich scientific and technological heritage. Open Tuesday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Museum is located at 1867 St. Laurent Boulevard (at Lancaster Road) and offers free parking on-site.

General information: Call 613 991-3044.