Machine arrière #2, the typewriter: the retro exhibition at the Cité des Sciences - our photos

After the transistor radio, we take a closer look at the typewriter in the second exhibition in the Machine arrière series, at the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, from November 25, 2025, to October 2026. This time, you are invited to travel back in time to 1936 and retrace history in reverse, from keyboards to typewriters, at the heart of the daily lives of typists, which bears witness to the link between innovation and political and social contexts.

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This series on the history of the major inventions that marked the20th century in the world of communication highlights the evolution of objects that have shaped our daily lives. The typewriter, which profoundly transformed the way we write and think about writing in its day, is divided into two parts: the social history of the typewriter, followed by an audio immersion into the heart of 1936.

A journey punctuated by objects awaits you, from the virtual keyboard to the typewriter. Visitors travel back in time to the 1930s and discoverthe social and technical history of this tool, a symbol of emancipation and modernity, a social marker associated with the fantasized figure of the typist, an elegant and independent woman, yet far removed from the often precarious reality of this profession.

We start with the most recent items, such as computers and smartphones, before moving on to larger devices and older keyboards. This is an opportunity to share a moment with your family, including children, parents, and grandparents, to review all the generations and discuss objects that some may not be familiar with! In this context, it's a fun experience!

In an immersive sound space, visitors are transported to the heart of the period ofsocialupheavalin 1936, joining a "pool" of typists, to the sound of keys hammering away incessantly, during the social protests and profound transformations of the world of work in France. The typewriter becomes both a witness and a participant in a chapter of history marked by strikes, the hopes raised by the Popular Front, and the rationalization of office work inspired by Taylorism.

A nice addition that invites you to come in and sit in a large pebble to listen to an audio drama created for the occasion by Radio France, allowing you to put yourself in the shoes of women who worked tirelessly and fought for more rights, thanks to impressive spatialized sound that comes from all around you at once. 

The exhibition is fairly small, so make the most of your ticket, which also gives you access to the exhibitions currently on display on levels 1 and 2, at the Argonaute and the planetarium. See you next year for the last item in the series, the autochrome, the ancestor of color photography!

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