Tom Everrett

Background

About Tom Everrett

I am curator of Canada’s national collection of communication technologies, which includes artifacts related to the history of telegraphy, telephony, radio, printing, photography, cinema, television, sound reproduction, and music. I curated the Canada Science and Technology Museum’s permanent Sound by Design and Wearable Tech exhibitions, and am an adjunct professor in Curatorial Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. My main research focus is the history of sound technology, with a special interest in technologies of communication and social change. I am currently leading an Ingenium-wide project called Sound Artifacts, which brings together curators, conservators, academics, students, fellows, and community members sharing a similar interest in material cultures of sound and listening. Presently, I am investigating the history of hydrophone (underwater microphone) technology in relation to developments in marine acoustic ecology, ocean wildlife conservation, and science communication. I am also leading a project to reconstruct the world’s oldest surviving musical synthesizer: the Electronic Sackbut. Previously, I led a project to reconstruct a 19th-century scientific instrument called the Ear Phonautograph, which played a key role in Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone. That project received the 2020 Canadian Museums Association award for research in science. I also co-edit, with collaborators in Berlin, New York, and Ottawa, an international database for sources on the history of acoustics called Sound & Science.