SPY
AND PRIVATE EYE MUSEUM OPENS IN AUSTIN TEXAS
INSIDE THE SPY AND PRIVATE-EYE MUSEUM
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The Spy And Private-Eye Museum has opened in Austin Texas in a room off the Spy Exchange And Security Center. It features artifacts and history of the private-eye and spy profession. Admission is only $20.00 or free with any purchase of $100.00 or more. NAIS members are free.
The Spy And Private-Eye Museum
is the collection of Ralph Thomas which features hundreds of different
antiques, artifacts and paper documents pertaining to private investigation
and spying. Included in the exhibit is old
reward posters and antique
and rare case file documents from Pinkerton National Detective Agency
in the 1800's, a huge assortment of vintage
subminiature spy cameras, old
and antique tape recorders,
movie surveillance cameras and countermeasures
gear, old
and rare badges, antique
polygraph machines and audio
listening devises, old
ads from investigative agencies as well as old
courses and books. You will also find a huge assortment of vintage
and antique binoculars,
spy monoculars and night
vision equipment. Of special interest is sets of vintage
and rare bumper beepers as well as movie
props and signed photos from detective TV shows and movies.
A number of artifacts
from the cold war and spying era of the 1960's and 1970's is included
in the exhibit including a piece of the Berlin wall, signs from Checkpoint
Charlie, a red telephone that was reportedly used upstairs in the White
House by John Kennedy and a telephone from the west wing of the White
House. Antique bomb shelter signs and an antique radiation detector are
also on display. An antique Russian telephoto Zenit camera is on display
that was used to take photos of people going into and out of the US Embassy
in the Soviet Union. A complete Minox spy camera kit with all the accessories
is on display that was used by a CIA agent. Thomas's fascination with
communication
equipment includes a collection of telegraph keys, old and vintage
cell phones, old acoustic coupled modems and some very old computers used
by NAIS and Thomas Investigative Publications from the late 1970's and
early 1980s.
On of Thomas's most interesting exhibits is the Watergate Bug and Watergate collection which includes what is rumored to be one of three artifacts used as well as a collection of other rare items from the President Nixon administration and Watergate scandal. How other more popular collection is rare documents, letters, reports, badges, case photos and invoices from Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.
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The Spy And Private-Eye Museum features small high tech digital interactive displays that set on countertops which present and explain some of the fascinating history and exhibits you will find by pushing a button. One framed photograph signed by Ronald Reagan on a photo of him giving his famous speech at the Berlin Wall has a button you push which then gives the famous Reagan quote, "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall!"
Another special item on display is an old counter intelligence briefcase used by counter intelligence agents to check telephone lines for bugs and wiretaps and fry them electronically when a bug or wiretap was found. There are old books on display penned by Allen Pinkerton, America's first private-eye, along with actual ad copy for some of the Pinkerton books that were sold in the 1800's. In one corner is what Thomas calls the first audio recorder which recorded to a wax cylinder. There are several big and bulky audio recorders that recorded to metal wire instead of magnetic tape. A display in one case reveals several smaller wire recorders called the Minifon which one could wear under a suite and had a microphone built into a watch.
Admission fees are used to maintain the exhibits and do new ones. By this fall, a second room with more exhibits will open. Below is some of the stuff you can see on display in person. You can read more about the goals and preservation activity of the Spy And Private-Eye Museum by clicking here to read a personal note by Ralph Thomas
THE SPY AND PRIVATE-EYE MUSEUM ONLINE
Copyright: 2008, Thomas
Investigative Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.