Westport Tech & Nostalgia Museum History & Today

Overview

The Westport Tech & Nostalgia Museum is an independently curated historical archive located in Westport, CT. It is the first extensive technology and nostalgia collection curated to a professional, international media standard entirely by a teenager, starting with a single discovery in 2018. Today, the museum serves as a "Technological Timeline," housing over 650 unique exhibits spanning 160 years of innovation and pop culture.

Westport Tech & Nostalgia Museum on April 2nd, 2026.

The Curatorial Lineage

Curator Jay Babina (now a college sophomore) carries a deep familial legacy of technological pioneering:

  • Great-Grandfather: A physicist and radar engineer at General Electric during WWII.
  • Grandparents: Founders of WMNR Fine Arts Radio in Monroe, CT.
  • Father: An early computer programmer and pioneer of late-90s online retail (founder of Beanienation.com, once a Top 10 internet auction site).

                    

Jay Babina on May 31st, 2011 and May 5th, 2023

Origins: The Glove Compartment Discovery

The origins of the Westport Tech & Nostalgia Museum can be traced back to November 2018, in the back seat of a car on the way to religious school. It was there that 12-year-old Jay Babina discovered his father’s 2002 Apple iPod Classic (2nd Generation) tucked away in a glove compartment. After researching the device online, Jay was struck not just by its $160 market value, but by its status as an iconic pillar of technological history. This single find sparked a seven-year obsession with the evolution of innovation.

Initially, the "collection" was a mobile one. Jay began carrying a handful of old devices found in his parents' basement—including the original iPod—around in a collapsible rubber container to show friends at school. On January 11, 2020, at the age of 14, the vision for a formal institution took shape. Jay decided to move the devices from the container to his desk shelves, accompanying each with a hand-folded index card detailing the model and release year. That night, the Westport Tech Museum was officially born.

The COVID Pivot: From Hobby to Institution

The early days were humble; a small "museum tour" during the 2020 Super Bowl left guests largely unimpressed. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the time and focus necessary to transform a shelf of gadgets into a legitimate archive. Throughout 2020 and early 2021, the collection swelled to over 100 items. Jay funded these acquisitions through household chores and aggressive sourcing at tag sales and flea markets, while also engaging the local Westport community for donations.

Westport Tech Museum on March 25th, 2020. 

In the summer of 2021, the museum reached a critical turning point. Realizing that a random assortment of "old tech" was educationally stagnant, Jay pivoted the mission. He decided to focus exclusively on technological "firsts," record-setting models, and iconic nostalgic pieces. This strategic shift elevated the museum from a personal collection to an institution-level archive of technological and pop-culture history.

Funding and Growth: 88mph Enterprises

To sustain this growth, Jay looked toward his entrepreneurial roots. Having co-founded 88mph Enterprises LLC with his father at age 12, Jay revived the idle company in October 2021 as a dedicated online retail enterprise. By selling items on eBay, Jay created a self-sustaining financial engine that continues to fund museum acquisitions to this day.

By May 2023, the museum housed nearly 400 exhibits spanning 160 years of history. This scale caught the attention of the media, starting with local Westport blogger Dan Woog. The story quickly spiraled into a front-page feature for the Connecticut Post, an on-air interview with Lisa Wexler on WICC, and a televised segment on News 12 Connecticut.

National Recognition and Rebranding

The museum’s most significant milestone occurred in the summer of 2024. After a segment aired on local NPR affiliate WSHU, the story was picked up by the national NPR.org homepage. Jay found his life's work featured alongside global headlines, leading to a flood of donor inquiries from across the United States.

In September 2024, reflecting an influx of high-value cultural artifacts, the institution officially rebranded as the Westport Tech & Nostalgia Museum. Today, the museum houses over 650 items and maintains a global digital presence. What began with an iPod in a glove compartment has become a premier private archive dedicated to the preservation of the devices—and the memories—that shaped the modern world.

Pictures of the computers at WTM on July 31st, 2024. Picture taken by Eda Uzunlar at WSHU Radio.

ABOUT THE WEBSITE:

This website is the third website made for Westport Tech Museum (Version 3.0).

Special exclusively-online virtual exhibits are on this website!  These are items that I don't have a physical item for.  Virtual exhibits are marked "[VIRTUAL]".

All pictures are of the actual museum exhibits, although Google Gemini was used to place the items on a plain grey background for some of them. 

Unless otherwise noted, all videos on this site are displayed directly from YouTube (using video embedding links provided by YouTube).

The museum runs on a modified Shopify platform.  Technical assistance and modifications were made by my father (John).