The 20th special exhibition at the Pantheon Basel is dedicated to a theme that is as old as mankind.
Homo sapiens have been carrying things around with them for as long as they have existed. Offspring, prey, firewood, food, tools, building materials, weapons.
In the beginning, people could only use their hands, arms and shoulders to do this, but the invention of the wheel made the work of carrying things easier. For more than five millennia, our ancestors pushed or pulled their belongings around on handcarts and carts, using their own strength or using draft animals if they could. From today's perspective, this must have been a strenuous life.
It was only with the advent of the railroads, the invention of the automobile and the associated construction of transport networks in the 19th century that the mobility of goods, which had previously only been possible on a large scale on the world's oceans, from port to port, came into being.
From commercial vehicle to delivery van
Trucks and buses, means of transportation, were among the first automobiles. It seems that their importance was second only to people's desire for individual mobility. Today, delivery vans are the last link in the transportation logistics chain. What is delivered to the large distribution centers by ship, train and truck is transported by delivery vans to the stores in the city centers or directly to private households.
Like traffic in general, this small goods traffic has also increased enormously, including that of tradespeople who are on the road every day with their mobile small warehouses and workshops in vans. Then there are the minibuses that take schoolchildren, workers and travelers from A to B. And when something is loaded or unloaded here and there and there is a standstill on the road, a traffic jam, we can either be annoyed or philosophize about it. For as long as humans have existed, they have been carrying things around with them - or transporting them in vans ...
The aim of the exhibition "From handcart to delivery van" is to show the development of small goods transportation over the past 150 years. The exhibits tell a diverse and varied story. Some of their chapters make you smile, others amaze you and make you think.
The 20th special exhibition at the Pantheon Basel, Forum for Classic Cars, entitled "From handcart to delivery van" is open from April 23 to October 15, 2017. The Pantheon is located at Hofackerstrasse 72 in CH-4132 Muttenz. The museum is open from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 17:30, on weekends (Sat/Sun) from 10:00 to 16:30. The entrance fee is CHF 10.00. There are various discounts and also the possibility of guided tours.
Further information can be found on the Pantheon Basel website.
