GPS : 41°00'52.5"N 28°58'27.0"E / 41.014597, 28.974174
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The first Post-Office was opened under the name of “Postahane-i Amire” (Department of Post Office) at the courtyard of Yeni Camii (Mosque) in İstanbul, and the first officials, Süleyman Ağa, collector Sofyalı Ağyazar were appointed as translators in order to translate the addresses of postal items written in languages other than Turkish.
In 1871, the Ministry of Post and the Directorate of Telegraph were united under the name of Ministry of Post and Telegraph. In 1876 international postal transportation network had been established, and in 1901, acceptance of parcel and money order was started to be accepted. After the establishment of the first manual telephone exchange in İstanbul on 23 May 1909, the Ministry of Post and Telegraph was turned into the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in 1909 and it took the name of the General Directorate of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in 1913.
The General Directorate of PTT which had served as subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the early years of our Republic, became subordinate to the Ministry of Public Works as an annexed budget administration in 1933, and since 1939 has been carrying out its services as subordinate to the Ministry of Transportation.
As the result of the developments that have been experienced with the Firman of Reform, the first Postal Organization was established as the Ministry on 23 October 1840, for the purpose of satisfying the postal needs of the whole community of the Ottoman Empire and foreigners. 11 years later, following the invention of telegraph in 1843, telegraph service had been started also in our country, and a separate Directorate of Telegraph had been established in 1855 in order to provide this service.
Although we all have occasion to pass through Istanbul’s Sirkeci district from time to time, there is one place we rarely notice in the hubbub of everyday life: the Great Post Office. This historic four-story structure, which was built a hundred years ago as the Ministry of Post and Telegraph, hosts an important museum today, the PTT Museum, where the history of communications and telecommunications in Turkey from the Ottoman period to the Turkish Republic is laid out for all to see.
History
1840 The Ministry of Post was established
1855 Directorate of Telegraph was established
1871 The Ministry of Post and The Directorate of Telegraph where merged
1901 Money order transactions were started to be accepted
1909 After the commencement of the telephone services, the institution was turned into the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone
1939 As being the General Directorate of PTT, it was bounded to The Ministry of Transportation
1984 It was transferred into the status of State Economic Establishment
1995 The General Directorate of PTT was restructured as The General Directorate of Posts and Turkish Telecommunication Coop. Automation was started for money order and postal cheque transactions
1999 Cooperation was started with Garanti Bank (Korfezbank) for collection transactions
2000 The name of the legal entity, The General Directorate of Posts was changed into The General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization.
2004 PTTBank’s name was registered officially.
As the result of the developments that have been experienced with the Firman of Reform, the first Postal Organization was established as the Ministry on 23 October 1840, for the purpose of satisfying the postal needs of the whole community of the Ottoman Empire and of foreigners. The first Post-Office was opened under the name of "Postahane-I Amire" ( Department of Post-Office) at the courtyard of Yeni Camii (Mosque) in İstanbul, and the first officials, Süleyman Ağa, collector Sofyalı Ağyazar were appointed as translators in order to translate the addresses of postal items written in languages other than Turkish.
11 years later, following the invention of telegraph in 1843, telgraph service had been started also in our country, and a separate Directorate of Telegraph had been established in 1855 in order to provide this service. In 1871, the Ministry of Post and the Directorate of Telegraph where united under the name of Ministry of Post and Telegraph. In 1876 international postal transportation network had been established, and in 1901, parcel and money order were started to be accepted.
After the establishment of the first manual telephone exchange in Istanbul on 23 May 1909, the Ministry of Post and Telegraph was turned into the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in 1909 and it took the name of the General Directorate of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in 1913. The General Directorate of PTT which had served as subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the early years of our Republic, became subordinate to the Ministry of Public Works an Settlement as an annexed budget administration in 1933, and since 1939 has been carrying out its services as subordinate to the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications.
General Directorate of PTT, which became a State Economic Enterprise (SEE) in 1954, has been transferred into the status of the State Economic Establishment (SEE) by the Decree Law No. 233 on Reorganization of the State Enterprises in 1984. By the Law dated 18.06.1994 and No. 4000, the General Directorate of PTT was restructured and divided into two as, the General Directorate of Posts and Turk Telecom Coop. , and the General Directorate of Posts started to give service independently since 24.04.1995.
The name of Our Administration which had been "The General Directorate of Posts" was amended as "The General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT) " under the Article 24 of the Law No.4502, which entered into force by being published in the Official Newspaper numbered 23948, dated 29.01.2000.
Museum
The PTT (Post - Telephone - Telegram company) museum in Istanbul is located inside the historic building of main post office at Sirkeci neighborhood. It houses several old phone units, telegram machines, first stamp from 1863 and other late Ottoman or early Republic period stamps, old seals and mail boxes, postal clerk uniforms, and some photos of the first communication systems in Turkey. From the ancestors of the cell phone to the original telexes, all the ‘firsts’ of communications in Turkey are on display at the PTT Museum in Istanbul Sirkeci.
Museum Building
The Main Post Office (Turkish: Büyük Postane), 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 Ottoman Empire as the building of the Ministry of Post and Telegraph (Ottoman Turkish: Posta ve Telgraf Nezareti). 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 (Ottoman Turkish: Posta Nezareti). 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.
The museum is divided into four sections: post, telegraph, telephone and stamps. And the first people that come to mind at the mention of the postal service are on hand to greet us at the entrance. Our acquaintance with them dates back to childhood. Indeed, we even sang a song about them in primary school: “Look, the postman is coming!” From the mounted couriers who carried the mail in the 19th century to the postmen who took over the same function in the Constitutional and Republican periods, they stand here attired in the uniforms of their time.
And then the vast array of mailboxes. The painstakingly fashioned contemporaries of the first stamps, issued in 1863, and the later, sturdier ones in whose design aesthetics played little role. Among them, one painted red and standing in the corner grabs our attention. It bears an inscription, ‘Bucharest Mail Box Ottoman Field Post (1914)’. Field boxes were used for communications between soldiers marching off to the front and their friends and relatives back home. Who knows what yearnings were stanched by these desert mailboxes which, in the beginning at least, required no stamps but for which special stamps were later issued.
Another object that catches our attention in this section is a war scene from the Ottoman period depicting the allied troops, Turks also among them, entering Sebastopol in 1855 following their victory in the Crimean War. The painting is included here for its direct link with the first telegram ever sent in the Ottoman Empire, which was dispatched from Şumnu to Istanbul following completion of the Istanbul-Edirne and Istanbul-Şumnu lines. Reporting on the Crimean War, the telegram read: "Allied troops enter Sebastopol".
Now we are on the top floor. Opening the door of a room, Museum Supervisor turns to us. “This was the office of Manastırlı Hamdi Bey”, she says, “preserved unchanged from his day”. For those who don’t know, let us hasten to explain that Hamdi Bey of Manastır (in Ottoman Macedonia) was the man who had the bitter task of informing Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) of the occupation of Istanbul on the morning of 16 March 1920.
Blow by blow he relayed to Ankara an account of the occupation of the War Ministry and the situation in Istanbul, continuing to send his dispatches even as trucks carrying enemy troops were drawing up in front of the Great Post Office. Only when the first enemy soldier actually entered the building was the transmission interrupted. The instrument that conveyed that grim news stands here still, together with Manastırlı Hamdi Bey’s desk and chair. And on the wall a photograph of him, with a smile on his lips, follows us from beyond time.
Have you ever heard of a postage stamp printed on cigarette paper? Well, we never did either until we came here. The first Turkish stamp, issued by Minister of the Post Agâh Efendi on 13 January 1863, was printed at the Ottoman Imperial Mint on thin cigarette paper. Also in a section on this floor are exhibits of all the Turkish stamps issued from that period up to the present as well as issues by member countries of the Universal Postal Union.
On the second floor of the museum are the telephones that can be regarded as the ancestors of today’s highly sophisticated mobiles. Magneto- or battery-powered, dial and non-dial, in both wall and desk models. Among this rare collection is an exact replica of the original telephone made by Alexander Graham Bell in 1882, a gift of the Alcatel-Bell firm on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the PTT. By adding a dial, PTT technicians have adapted it for use today.
Although the telephone was first introduced in Istanbul during the period of Sultan Abdülhamid II, it came into widespread use only following the promulgation of the Second Constitution in 1908. Nevertheless, since these first telephones were not automatic, communications were only possible via a "santral" or central switchboard. At the outset it was to be operated by Istanbul’s so-called "mademoiselles", in other words, girls from the city’s Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities.
But since most of these girls spoke heavily accented Turkish, this plan soon had to be abondoned owing to customer dissatisfaction. Introducing the principle of "speaking with an Istanbul accent on Istanbul telephones", the company laid down the condition that applicants for the job of switchboard operator must have pleasant voices. Since the city’s female inhabitants were reluctant to expose themselves publicly in this way, recourse was had from time to time to the many foreign-run schools in the city. In 1914, for example, an examination was held at the French Girls’ Lycée in Kadıköy.
Among those who passed was Bedia (Muvahhit) Hanım, who would subsequently claim the title of first great actress of the Turkish stage. Until she embarked on her career in the theater, Bedia Hanım’s melodic voice could be heard answering callers at the Beyoğlu switchboard. The invisible and mysterious bond that formed between the switchboard operators and the telephone subscribers lasted until the introduction of the first automatic telephones in 1931.
During this process, telephones came down from the wall onto the desk, their dimensions diminished, and aesthetics began to take precedence in their design. It was therefore a bittersweet pleasure that was enjoyed by the residents of the city’s European side when the first "unmediated" (without the intervention of a switchboard operator) calls became possible on the night of 29 October 1931. Subscribers felt as if they had suddenly lost a friend.
Our guide takes us into another gallery where she points out three tiny figures: the "postal couriers". Couriers were the men who carried the official documents sent from the Imperial Court in Istanbul to the authorities in the provinces. Dressed in special uniforms, they were carefully selected from among the most trusted and strongest men and the best riders. If their destination was a distant place, they changed mounts at posting stations known as "menzilhane".
Their journeys took them through some of the most isolated and untraveled regions of the empire. Galloping over hill and dale, at times they even bore arms against the threat of bandits and wild animals. Some sources also state that news of the great Ottoman military victories at Kosovo and Çaldıran were brought back to Istanbul by such couriers.
There is much more to be seen and described at the PTT Museum. Couriers’ uniforms, weapons, the switchboards where the mademoiselles were employed, teletypewriters and the original telexes, to name just a few. Open every day from Monday through Friday, the museum is waiting for you to take a stroll down memory lane. For you will certainly find there numerous reminders of your lost childhood and youth.
The Istanbul Postal Museum, aka PTT Museum Istanbul (Turkish: PTT İstanbul Müzesi), is a postal museum dedicated to the historical development of mail and telecommunication services in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 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 quarter of Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey.
Examples of various uniforms worn by military couriers and mail carriers 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 satchels, mail pouches, mail sacks, letter boxes, locator maps, franking machines 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 (1853–1856) affiliates with the first use of telegraphy in the Ottoman Empire on September 9, 1855. A telegraph was dispatched from Shumen (Bulgaria, then Ottoman Empire) to the capital Istanbul relayed in Edirne. The message reads "Allied troops entered Sevastopol." (Ottoman Turkish: Asâkir-i müttefika Sivastopol'a girmişlerdir.) to report the victory of the Allied troops, along with the Ottomans, ending the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) during the Crimean War.
On the third floor, the telegraphy room of clerk Hamdi Bey of Monastır (today Bitola in the Republic of Macedonia) is preserved unchanged from those days with all the historical equipment. He was in charge when the Allied troops of World War I (1914–1918) occupied Istanbul on March 16, 1920 following the Armistice of Mudros. He sent messages to Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) in Ankara 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 teletypewriters and an original telex machine is on exhibit as well.
Telephone
The second floor hosts various early telephone instruments and related equipment. There are telephones with hand-cranked magneto generator or battery-powered, rotary dial and pushbutton dial telephones in both wall and desk versions, also produced in Turkish PTT factories, telephone switchboards, elektromechanical automatic telephone exchanges.
Also an exact replica of Alexander Graham Bell's (1842–1922) original telephone from 1882 is exhibited here. It was a gift from Alcatel-Lucent company in 1990 on the 150th anniversary of Turkish Post's establishment. An example of telephone switchboard can be seen, which enabled to manually connect telephone subscribers. The installation of the first elektromechanical automatic telephone exchange in Turkey was accomplished on October 23, 1931 making the switchboard operators superfluous.
Postage stamps
The first Turkish postage stamp was issued by Post Minister Agah Efendi (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'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 SATELLITE MAP
WEB SITE : İstanbul PTT Museum
MORE INFO & CONTACT
Phone : +90 212 520 9037 / +90 444 1788
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