The Prague Apple Museum
How far would you travel to see a collection of rare Apple
devices or the clothes Steve Jobs wore when introducing
the iPad to the world? Hopefully, the Czech Republic is
not too far for you.
The Apple Museum in Prague showcases products
and memorabilia donated by eight private collectors. Its
inventory is so comprehensive, visitors might think they’re
strolling through an official corporate archive in Cupertino.
A Revolutionary Idea
Why Prague? “Why not?” says one of the curators who
helped organize the collection. The museum is the result
of an almost yearlong effort to house everything from an
Apple Lisa, one of the first personal computers to have
a graphical user interface, to the eyeglasses Jobs wore
during one of his keynote speeches.
In the spirit of Jobs and his circle of confidants who
created Apple, the organizers of this museum — tech pro-
fessionals who have agreed to remain anonymous — had
a dream that came together with the help of hard work,
good fortune, and the generosity of others willing to share
some rare and coveted Apple artifacts.
“There was a spark, an idea, and we had a great
foundation to build on [from] one donor,” recalled Lukáš
Hrudička, one of the museum’s curators. “It’s really
incredible when you see it.… It sounded like a dream.”
The Collection
With items dating from 1976 to 2012, nearly every com-
puter, printer, mouse, joystick, and piece of software is
represented. All that’s missing is an Apple Lisa 1 (dam-
aged during shipping), but there is a Lisa 2.
Hrudička said the most popular installations are
two long tables, each showing the evolution of the iPhone
and the iPod, including models in every color ever pro-
duced. Nearby, explosions of color mark a collection of
bulbous plastic iMacs in every hue and design.
The museum also houses personal items of Steve
Jobs to remind visitors of this innovator’s genius and
the cult of personality he represents. There is even
Steven’s Café, whose menu follows Jobs’s raw, vegan
diet and features juices with names like Vitality,
Prosperity, and Energy.
High school yearbooks with photos of Jobs and
cofounder Steve Wozniak sit alongside NeXT and Pixar
items, representing Jobs’s exile from Apple in 1985. On
one wall is a jacket that Jobs wore during his first keynote
address in 1997, after his return, when he announced an
important new partnership with Microsoft.
“The collection tells the story of Steve Jobs’s
beginnings, which comes to life as you walk through the
museum,” said Hrudička. “It’s funny to see Steve Jobs
when he was 17. There’s a picture of him on a motor-
cycle. You see the Apple II, the Lisa, and then you can
clearly see when Jobs left and design kind of stopped.”
Another display re-creates Jobs’s introduction of
the first iPad on January 27, 2010. It features the black
chair in which he sat and, in addition to the iPad, the
clothes Jobs wore: jeans, the now-iconic black mock
turtleneck, and running shoes.
Other displays feature rare items, such as a
customized anniversary iMac with a Bose sound system
and leather casing that belonged to Apple design guru
Jonathan “Jony” Ive.
Most of the collection is comprised of donations
by anonymous benefactors. The idea for a museum
gained traction when a historical building on the
corner of Husova and Karla streets became available.
The building became the Center for Pop-Up Art and
then was renovated to make space for the museum,
including the addition of 12,000 meters of com-
puter cable and an interactive space for children.
According to the museum website, all proceeds
from admissions go to various charities.
86
87
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.