The Typhoon Talipoglu Typewriter Museum is Turkey’s only museum dedicated to mechanical writing

In the historic Odunpazarı district, within an old Ottoman house featuring carved wooden cornices and second stories that jut out over the street, lies an unusual collection—the Tayfun Talipoglu Typewriter Museum. It is the first and only museum in Turkey entirely dedicated to the evolution of the typewriter, and one of the largest collections of its kind in Europe. Around two hundred machines from different eras and countries transform a small wooden house in Eskişehir into a true monument to an era when every letter was born to the clatter of metal levers. The museum is named after a renowned Turkish journalist and documentary filmmaker who dedicated his life to preserving cultural memory, and today it is a must-see attraction in the city alongside the Glass Museum and the Odunpazarı district.

This museum is a rare example of how a private passion becomes a public treasure. It lies off the beaten path of typical tourist routes and thus retains a special atmosphere: there are no crowds, audio guides in eight languages, or souvenir megastores. Instead, there is the smell of old grease, the clatter of a carriage, the clang of metal levers, and hundreds of machines, each telling its own story—about 19th-century engineers, writers, and journalists; about an era when text was a physical, tangible object, not a string of pixels on a screen.

History and Origins

Tayfun Talipoglu (1959–2016) is a figure without whom it is impossible to imagine modern Turkish documentary filmmaking. A journalist, TV host, and passionate traveler, he spent two decades filming programs about Turkey’s small towns and forgotten crafts, revealing to viewers a country that lies off the beaten path of standard tourist routes. His program “Gezi’miz Anadolu” (Walks Through Anatolia) became a cultural phenomenon, and Talipoglu himself was a collector not only of stories but also of objects: postcards, old radios, cameras, and, most importantly, typewriters.

Talipoglu’s love for typewriters began during his student years, when he worked in the newsrooms of Istanbul newspapers and witnessed the end of the era of hot linotype machines and heavy Remingtons. He began buying typewriters at flea markets in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, traveled to Germany, Italy, and the UK in search of rarities, and exchanged pieces with European collectors. By the time of his sudden death in 2016, the collection numbered nearly two hundred machines, spanning more than 120 years of history—from the first commercially successful typewriters of the 1880s to the latest electronic models of the late 20th century.

After the journalist’s death, his family, together with the municipality of the Odunpazarı district, decided to turn the collection into a permanent museum. They found a home for it in a restored late-19th-century Ottoman house in the heart of the historic quarter. The museum opened in 2018 and almost immediately became a magnet for tourists and industrial design enthusiasts. Admission to the collection is free, which is particularly appreciated by visitors: the municipality views the museum as part of the city’s cultural infrastructure, not a commercial venture. In recent years, Eskişehir has experienced a real boom in cultural urbanism: the old Odunpazarı has been joined by a modern glass museum, independent film festivals, and numerous galleries, and the typewriter museum has seamlessly integrated into this revitalized urban identity.

Architecture and What to See

The building that houses the museum is noteworthy in its own right. A two-story structure with a whitewashed ground floor, a protruding wooden bay window, and distinctive red roof tiles—it is a typical example of late 19th-century Ottoman urban architecture. Following restoration, the interiors retained their original wooden ceilings, niches, and built-in cabinets, which now serve as natural display cases for the exhibits. The tour route is organized chronologically and thematically: visitors literally walk through a century and a half of the history of writing. Narrow staircases, creaky floorboards, and low doorways add to the atmosphere—it feels as though the house itself, like any good little machine, is ready at any moment to speak with the voice of the era.

Hall of Early Mechanical Typewriters

The ground floor houses the most valuable part of the collection—typewriters from the last quarter of the 19th century. Here you can see replicas of the first Sholes & Glidden models, which gave the world the familiar QWERTY layout, heavy brass “index” typewriters where letters were selected by turning a wheel, as well as extremely rare examples with circular keyboards. All machines are equipped with detailed labels in Turkish and English indicating the year of manufacture, country of origin, and a brief history of the model. A separate display case is dedicated to design experiments—typewriters with two keyboards, folding cases, and unusual paper feed mechanisms. Here, too, stands the pride of the collection—a complex 1891 Williams design featuring a “reverse strike” mechanism, where the type fell onto the paper from above, and an extremely rare Crandall with enamel inlays, transforming a utilitarian object into a work of applied art.

The Golden Age of Remington and Olivetti

The second hall is dedicated to the pinnacle of the mechanical era—typewriters from the 1920s to the 1950s. On display here are the legendary Remington Portable models, used by Hemingway and Agatha Christie; the elegant Italian Olivetti Lettera 22, recognized as one of the greatest examples of 20th-century industrial design; as well as the German Olympia, Adler, and Erika. Among the exhibits are typewriters with the Turkish F layout, developed in 1955 specifically for the Turkish language and considered one of the most ergonomic in the world. Comparing its keyboard to the familiar QWERTY layout becomes a fascinating intellectual experience in itself, especially when the tour guide explains how the lives of millions of clerks and journalists changed after the introduction of this layout.

Celebrities’ Typewriters and Personal Stories

Of particular value to the collection are the legendary typewriters—those that belonged to famous Turkish writers, journalists, and statesmen. The collection includes machines associated with the era of 20th-century Turkish journalism, as well as Remington typewriters from the editorial offices of Istanbul’s largest newspapers. These typewriters are accompanied by photographs of their owners, facsimiles of manuscripts, and short audio recordings that immerse the visitor in the era. A display case featuring a letter typed on one of these machines sixty years ago, with the machine itself lying nearby, is perhaps the most powerful part of the exhibition: the gap between the object and its trace disappears, and time seems to fold back onto itself.

The Hall of Electric and Electronic Typewriters

The final section illustrates the decline of mechanical typewriting: electric IBM Selectrics with rotating type heads, Japanese Brother and Canon models with electronic displays and memory, and the latest models from the early 1990s. The contrast with the first exhibits—the nearly century-old “Underwood”—evokes a sense of the journey taken and suggests just how rapid this technological evolution was. Here, too, is a small display featuring first-generation computer mice and an old modem, symbolizing the transition to the digital era.

Typhoon Talipoglu Memorial Room

A separate, intimate room is dedicated to the collector himself: here are his desk, camera, beloved Olivetti typewriter, manuscripts, awards, and stills from documentary films. This is a place to pause—a space where the tour turns into a personal encounter with the man thanks to whom the collection exists at all. His caps and scarves, recognizable from TV broadcasts, hang on the wall, and in the corner, an old TV plays on a loop, showing clips from “Gezimiz Anadolu.”

Interesting facts and legends

• The collection houses an extremely rare 1913 Hammond Multiplex model—a typewriter capable of changing fonts with a single motion, the prototype of modern font sets.
• The Turkish F keyboard layout, represented in the museum by dozens of examples, was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2009 as the fastest keyboard for typing Turkish text.
• Some of the museum’s typewriters are still in working condition: visitors are sometimes allowed to try typing their names on an eighty-year-old Remington.
• Among the exhibits is a typewriter with Arabic script, used in late Ottoman-era record-keeping until the 1928 alphabet reform—a rare artifact from a bygone literary world.
• In Eskişehir, a street and a scholarship for journalism students are named in honor of Tayfun Talipoglu; the museum participates in the annual documentary film festival held in the city in the fall.
• The gift shop sells postcards printed on the museum’s old typewriters—each card is unique and considered a miniature work of art.
• The collection includes several “travel” typewriters from the 1930s in leather cases: war correspondents and engineers took them with them to construction sites across the Republic to send dispatches and reports.
• The smallest typewriter in the collection is a foldable German Bambino, about the size of a pocket-sized book; the heaviest weighs nearly twenty-five kilograms and was intended for the accounting departments of large banks.

How to get there

The museum is located in the Odunpazarı district of Eskişehir, on Türkmen Hoca Sokak, just a ten-minute walk from the central square and the Porsuk River promenade. Eskişehir itself is a major transportation hub in Central Anatolia: the YHT high-speed train connects it to Ankara (one and a half hours) and Istanbul (about three hours), making a day trip from either capital a real possibility. It is about two kilometers from the train station to the museum: you can walk through the park, take the Estram tram to the Odunpazarı stop, or take a taxi. Drivers can conveniently park at the municipal parking lot at the entrance to the historic quarter—the streets beyond are pedestrian-only. Anadolu Airport mainly handles domestic flights; international passengers usually find it more convenient to fly to Ankara or Istanbul and transfer to a high-speed train. There are also convenient buses from Bursa and Konya that take you to the Eskişehir bus station in three to four hours.

Tips for Travelers

The Typewriter Museum is open daily, except Mondays, during standard daytime hours; admission is free, but during peak season, the ticket office issues a limited number of time-stamped tickets to avoid overcrowding in the small exhibition halls. The best time to visit is on a weekday morning: then you can take your time reading all the labels and chatting with the staff, many of whom speak English and remember Talipoglu personally. Allow at least an hour for the tour, and if you’re interested in design or the history of technology—an hour and a half. Photography is permitted without a flash.

Combine your visit with a stroll through Odunpazarı itself—a district listed on UNESCO’s tentative list. Within a 500-meter radius of the museum, you’ll find the Eskişehir Contemporary Glass Museum, the Lületaşı (sea foam) Museum, the 14th-century Kirsehir Bey Mosque, and dozens of colorful wooden houses converted into cafes and galleries. Be sure to try the local specialty—çibörek (crispy meat-filled pastries, a legacy of Tatar cuisine)—and Eskişehir tahini halva. For families with children, the museum is particularly interesting when combined with the nearby Sazova Park and its fairytale castle, as well as a boat ride on the Porsuk River, which is often compared to a stroll through Amsterdam.

If you’re planning a route through Central Anatolia, it’s convenient to form a triangle connecting Ankara, Eskişehir, and Konya: high-speed trains and buses run between the cities, and your cultural itinerary will be as rich as possible. In the fall and spring, it often rains in Eskişehir—bring a lightweight umbrella, especially since part of the museum route winds through the neighborhood’s streets, where it’s easier to get around on foot. For fans of night photography, it’s worth returning to the museum building after sunset: the lighting of Odunpazarı’s facades transforms the narrow streets into the setting of an Ottoman fairy tale. And one last thing: Tayfun Talipoglu’s Typewriter Museum is less about technology and more about one man’s love for memory, craftsmanship, and the written word. Spend an evening there—and you’ll leave Eskişehir with the rare sensation of having touched the warmth of the analog era.