The Telephone Historical Centre aims to promote innovation through technological artifacts. Ranging from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wooden wall-mounted phones, to today’s sleek mobile phones and everything in between – this museum honors and preserves inventions that bring us together.
Access to the museum collections is open and accessible to all, no matter their physical proximity. Outreach programs like Traveling Trunks bring these artifacts directly into communities.
Traveling Trunks Program
Traveling Trunks program brings artifacts, books and interactive activities from our museum directly into classrooms, scout groups, community organizations and other off-site venues for visitors to explore human communication history while understanding its impact. Students and adults can connect to this historical record while developing a greater knowledge of technological development impacting our modern lives.
From wall-mounted solid wood devices with operator control to sleek cell phones of today, come learn about the development of communication technology. Experience iterative design processes through hands-on engagement with intricate panel switchboards and replica candlestick telephones – you won’t believe how far technology has come.
This trunk provides students with an insightful glimpse into life in Chester County during the Revolutionary War period. They interact with reproduction clothing, explore items from an enslaved household and critically analyze documents that highlight slavery’s history in our nation.
Museum Ambassadors
Today’s telephone technology can seem magical: just press a button and you’re instantly speaking with your mother in Philadelphia or your friend in New York. But in years past making calls required an intricate network of wires and cords.
Telecommunications museums hold collections that show the progression of communication technology and encourage curiosity about its evolution over time. Their collections provide children and adults alike the chance to experience key moments from its history while learning about the creativity, craftsmanship and innovation that brought modern connectivity into being.
Museum volunteers offer visitors a warm and friendly welcome as they navigate their way through an often vast collection. Behind-the-scenes, volunteers support library/archives conservation laboratories and help install exhibits. Many volunteers who were once telephone operatorss are still passionate about what they used to do professionally; this makes them invaluable resources in any museum because they can speak directly about the equipment being displayed as well as tell its stories to visitors.
Behind-the-Scenes Volunteers
At our Museum, Archives, Library and Conservation Laboratories we have numerous multifaceted volunteer opportunities available. Behind-the-Scenes volunteers collaborate closely with staff members on short and long term projects. Archival (archiving, organizing and storing paper materials such as photos, films and audio tapes); collections management; conservation (creating protective storage containers for artifacts while cleaning/preserving them); and event planning are among many of the professions available here. Other ways you can support the Museums and Historical Centre are making a monetary donation or sharing your story through Alexandria’s Oral History Center. Our Telephone Buddy program also gives you an opportunity to give back by calling older adults regularly, chatting about shared memories, and connecting them with community services and programs as needed.
Education Programs
The Telephone Historical Centre provides an acquisition, research, organization, documentation and exhibition center for materials relating to telecommunications history. Its collections showcase innovation that has ranged from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall mounted operator directed phones through today’s multifunctional pocket cell phones. Museum volunteers share their passion for telecom by instilling intrinsic curiosity through learning experiences.
The museum provides educational workshops based on curriculum requirements and tailored to local issues, while its Traveling Trunks Program brings specially curated selections of artifacts and resources directly into communities that cannot visit its physical museum.
The Museum offers an impressive collection of working electromechanical central office switch equipment such as Panel and Crossbar electromechanical switchgear, an Operator switchboard, outdoor plant displays of poles wire and insulators as well as an impressive library of phone books and catalogs – an ideal spot for family outings or school field trip opportunities.
