The Rahmi M. Koç Museum is a private industrial

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications. Rahmi M. Koç, member of one of the wealthiest families in Turkey and retired chairman (currently the honorary chairman) of the Koç Group, founded the museum in 1991, which was opened on December 13, 1994. The museum is located in the suburb of Hasköy on the northern shore of the

Golden Horn The Golden Horn ( or ) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the ...

and situated in two historical buildings connected to each other. It is open to public every day except Monday. A sister museum, but smaller in size, the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum opened its doors in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

in 2005, followed by a third Rahmi M. Koç Museum on

Cunda Island __NOTOC__ Cunda Island, also called Alibey Island, (), Greek Moschonisi ( or Μοσχόνησος), is the largest of the Ayvalık Islands archipelago in Turkey, which was historically called the ''Εκατόνησα'' (''Hekatonisa'') or '' ...

in 2014.

History

A visit of Rahmi Koç to the

Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, within Metro Detroit. The museum collection contai ...

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

, United States inspired him to create this museum. The Koç Foundation bought the first museum building in 1991, which was left derelict and seriously damaged after a roof fire in 1984. This building (in Turkish: ''Lengerhane''), was initially used for casting anchors and chains for the

Ottoman Navy The Ottoman Navy () or the Imperial Navy (), also known as the Ottoman Fleet, was the naval warfare arm of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Ottomans first reached the sea in 1323 by capturing Praenetos (later called Karamürsel ...

, during the rule of Sultan

Ahmed III Ahmed III (, ''Aḥmed-i sālis''; was sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hacıoğlu Pazarcık, ...

(1703–1730). It was restored during the reign of

Selim III Selim III (; ; was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, he was eventually deposed and imprisoned by the Janissaries, who placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV (). A group of a ...

(1789–1807) before passing into the ownership of the Ministry of Finance in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. During the Republican era, the State Monopoly and Tobacco Co. then used the building as a warehouse until 1951. The Koç Foundation spent two and a half years for the restoration work of this Class II category historical monument. In July 2001, the museum opened a new building to improve the display of its collection of industrial and scientific artifacts. This new section was a disused historical

dockyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involve ...

, founded in 1861 by the Ottoman maritime company Şirket-i Hayriye for the maintenance and reparation works of its own ships. The Koç Foundation bought the building in 1996. The two buildings are on the same road, on opposite sides: the dockyard part of the complex is on the shores of the Golden Horn. A glass-sided ramp leads down to the basement exhibition area of the Lengerhane.

Exhibits

Permanent exhibitions

Most of the items exhibited in the museum are selected from Rahmi Koç's private collection. Other objects are either borrowed from or donated by various organizations and individuals. Original machines and their

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

s, scientific and mechanical items make up the basis of the museum's exhibits. *

Road transport Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations e ...

: Racing cars, sports cars (between 1953 and 1986), sedan/coupé and convertible cars (1898–1994), utility vehicles (1911–1963), commercial vehicles (1908–2002), motorcycles (1908–2003), *

Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

: Old Istanbul tram (1934),

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

’s carriage (1867), steam engine

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

(1913), narrow-gauge steam locomotive (1930), Istanbul

Tünel The Tünel (, designated as the F2 line on the Istanbul transport map) is a historic, underground, rubber-tyred funicular line in Istanbul, Turkey. It has two stations, connecting Karaköy and Beyoğlu. The tunnel runs uphill from near the con ...

carriage (1876), Henschel steam locomotive (1918), * Marine: Cargo vessel, motorboat, lifeboat (1951),

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

passenger ferryboat, outboard motor collection, amphibious car (1961), ''Kısmet'', Sadun Boro's sloop, he circumnavigated the globe with it as the first ever Turkish sailor, *

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

Aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

(1941–1979), aviation parts collection, aircraft engines (1928–1979), large and small-scale aircraft models, *

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

: Ferry boat steam engine (1911),

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

factory, portable stationary steam engine (1872), gas engine, wood saw, marine compound steam engine (1900), *

Communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

s: Rotary dial telephone (1920),

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

(1903),

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

telegraph patent model (1876), valve amplifier (1936),

zoetrope A zoetrope is a Precursors of film#Modern era, pre-film animation device that produces the illusion of motion, by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. A zoetrope is a cylindrical variant of ...

(1835), *

Scientific instruments A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research. History Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...

: Wimshurst machine, grand

orrery An orrery is a mechanical Solar System model, model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and natural satellite, moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent ...

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at t ...

, Strasbourg turret clock, * Models and toys: Hands-on: Cutaway car, aeroplane, scientific experiments and cutaway domestic goods.

Temporary exhibitions

* "Leonardo, the universal genius" was the title of the first ever temporary exhibition featuring a collection of 40 full-sized artworks, all created from the original drawings made by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

. The reproductions of the machines are envisaged in the famous "''

Codex Leicester The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex is named after Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. The codex provides an insight into the m ...

''", a collection of largely scientific manuscripts of Leonardo written between 1478 and 1513. The exhibits were grouped in five broad categories:

Mechanism Mechanism may refer to: *Mechanism (economics), a set of rules for a game designed to achieve a certain outcome **Mechanism design, the study of such mechanisms *Mechanism (engineering), rigid bodies connected by joints in order to accomplish a ...

s and the four ancient elements of nature:

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

Water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

and

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

. The "Mechanisms" section included inventions pertaining to everyday life such as

gear A gear or gearwheel is a rotating machine part typically used to transmit rotational motion and/or torque by means of a series of teeth that engage with compatible teeth of another gear or other part. The teeth can be integral saliences or ...

s and lifting systems. A

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

and

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

design were displayed at the "Earth" section. At the "Air" section,

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

s and flying machines like the

ornithopter An ornithopter (from Greek language, Greek ''ornis, ornith-'' 'bird' and ''pteron'' 'wing') is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may dif ...

bicycle were on display. The "Fire" section displayed machines of war,

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

s and machine guns; while water-related inventions such as

Archimedes' screw The Archimedes' screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest documented hydraulic machines. It was so-named after the Greek mathematician Archimedes who first described it ...

made up the "Water" section. All displays were in functioning condition, and the majority could be operated by the visitors themselves, making the interactive exhibition cultural, educational, and also fun. The show was held from November 1 to December 31, 2006. A few items were also on show at the Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum in

Images

File:1930 Bugatti T46 Rahmi M. Koç Müzesi.jpg, 1930 Bugatti Type 46

Coupé de Ville Coupé de ville is a car body style produced from 1908 to 1939. It has an external or open-topped driver's position, as well as an enclosed compartment for passengers. Although the different terms may have once had specific meanings for certai ...

File:1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith coupé by De Villars.jpg, 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith Coupé File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0526.jpg, 1935 Bentley 3.5 Litre Convertible File:Rmk1.JPG, 1938 Lincoln Zephyr Coupé File:1936 Dodge Six Touring Sedan Istanbul.jpg, 1936

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

Six Touring Sedan File:1932 Riley Gamecock Sprite.jpg, 1932

Riley Riley may refer to: Businesses * Riley (brand), British sporting goods brand founded in 1878 * Riley Motor, British motorcar and bicycle manufacturera 1890–1969 * Riley Technologies, American auto racing constructor and team, founded by Bob ...

Gamecock Sprite Roadster File:1936 Austin Heavy Twelve-Four roadster.jpg, 1936 Austin 12 Roadster File:Rmk2.JPG, Horse-drawn tram of Istanbul (1872–1914) File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 5998.jpg, Horse-drawn tram of Istanbul (1872–1914) File:Rmk3.JPG,

Borsig Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1867–1897), German entrepreneur * August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman * Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer * Ernst Borsig (1869–1933) ...

G10 locomotive (1912) File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0522.jpg, Coffee preparation machine File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6045.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Lion File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0546.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Steam tug File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6131.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Militaria File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6164.jpg, Model (1938) of German battleship ''Bismarck'' File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6174.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Toy File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6149.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Train models File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6089.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Cobbler File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 0562.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Olive oil preparation File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6095.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Wood saw File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6035.jpg, Istanbul Rahmi M. Koç Museum – Doll's house File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6022.jpg, Imperial Coach used by Sultan

Abdülaziz Abdulaziz (; ; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was 1876 Ottoman coup d'état, overthrown in a government coup. He was a son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother ...

during his visit to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in 1867 File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6021.jpg,

winders File:Istanbul Rahmi M Koc Museum 6028.jpg,

passenger wagon

References

External links

Rahmi M. Koç Museum (official website)

Detailed description of the museum railway section on TrainsofTurkey.com

The Genius of Leonardo at Rahmi M. Koç Museum

''The touch of universal genius'', Turkish Airlines onboard magazine ''Skylife'', December 2006

Some 200 pictures from the museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahmi M. Koc Museum Museums in Istanbul Transport museums in Turkey Industry museums in Turkey Redevelopment projects in Istanbul Golden Horn Museums established in 1994 Buildings and structures in Beyoğlu Technology museums in Turkey Tourism in Istanbul Koç family 1994 establishments in Turkey