The Importance of Periodicals for Tesla’s Work: Press Clipping Material in the Nikola Tesla Museum

Abstract

The Nikola Tesla Museum is the first Yugoslav and Serbian memorial technical museum, and it keeps the memory of Nikola Tesla in a special way. Very valuable, rich and diverse heritage materials classify this museum as one of the most important cultural institutions in our country. In this institution, the heritage of Tesla, which arrived in Belgrade in 1952, is kept and preserved. 

The collection of the Nikola Tesla Museum consists of two units that differ in origin, but their content is both thematically and structurally very similar. The first unit is Nikola Tesla’s Personal Items, which includes his entire legacy, while the Nikola Tesla Museum Collection is the second unit in which materials related to scientist's life and work are kept, but they are not a part of his legacy.

A significant part of Nikola Tesla's Personal Items is his library. This library preserves monographs, periodical editions and a press clipping collection. The library of this great man has been proclaimed as a cultural asset in the categoty of old and rare books on March 7th, 2014.

Press clipping albums with clips and articles from periodicals represent separate units telling us more about the means and methodologies that Tesla used to gather and sort the information he needed for work. Consistent system of bibliographic classification that he applied is noticeable in the albums. Articles are organized thematically and chronologically. For almost every article the source from which the article was taken is indicated. The material is further classified into two sections within the thematic groups ‒ personal and non-personal. The importance that Tesla gave to these albums is also confirmed by the existence of a catalogue with the list of articles in the albums. Tesla's interest in periodical publications is also illustrated by his preserved correspondence with reporters and editors.