Victorian ear trumpets in XX and XXI century

Throughout the 19th century ear trumpets became the most popular and in fact the only technical solution for deaf people. They merged with the behavior regarded as typical for the deaf such as misinterpretations and communicational loss, therefore ear trumpets turned into a social stigma. They became objects that were bashfully hidden by users. In the 20th century however ear trumpets’image as well as functions changed as they were substituted with modern, electric and later electronic hearing prostheses. Once ear trumpets became antiquated their place in the technological landscape have changed. They did not vanish but relocated within the social and cultural domain. Article is based on: object oriented analysis of ear trumpets, interview with the ear trumpet collector, discourse analysis of the ear trumpet advertisements documents from British National Archives and The Thackray Museum in Leeds.