Women in history Archive – Swiss National Museum

25. March 2020

Middle Ages | Women in history

Nuns – Powerful women in the Middle Ages

Medieval nuns – the phrase brings to mind a group of women living in seclusion behind convent walls, devoting themselves to their faith. But a look at history gives a very different picture.

3. December 2019

20th / 21st century | Technology

de en fr

Please connect me! Automating our telephone exchanges

by Luca Thanei

On 3 December 1959, PTT replaced Switzerland’s last manual telephone exchange with a fully automated switching system. This major feat of engineering also signalled the end of the switchboard girl, or ‘Fräulein vom Amt’, as the telephone operators were known.

7. November 2019

20th / 21st century | Economy

de en fr

Text and a picture, to hold it all together!

by Andrej Abplanalp

A glossy that’s a magazine and insurance policy in one? And delivers brilliant housekeeping tips? A look back at Switzerland’s media landscape.

23. August 2019

Classical antiquity | Society

de en fr

The influential Camilli of Avenches

by Eva Carlevaro

What became of the Gallic tribes who continued to live in the territory of what is now Switzerland after the Roman conquest? Thanks to Roman inscriptions, we’re able to partly reconstruct the family tree of the Gallic Camilli family, who lived in Avenches around 2,000 years ago.