Few inventions have had as profound an effect on daily lives as the telephone. At Edmonton’s Telephone Historical Centre, discover its fascinating story.
This museum, established and opened by retired ED TEL employees in 1987 in Old Strathcona neighbourhood before moving two years later to Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre in central Edmonton, boasts one of the largest facilities of its kind in North America. On display are working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches as well as antique wooden box phones and candlestick wall phones from its collection.
Ellsworth Telephone Museum
Ellsworth Telephone Museum is a nonprofit museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing pre-digital telephone technology, providing visitors with an intimate knowledge of its operation. Instead of simply displaying artifacts behind glass cases, visitors have an opportunity to touch historic equipment directly for a deeper understanding of how it worked.
From classic rotary phones to manual cord switches, the exhibits demonstrate how innovation was more than an isolated scientific breakthrough; it had wide-reaching societal consequences. They also remind us that Elisha Gray and Antonio Meucci each contributed equally towards furthering the technology behind telephone invention.
The museum pays a fitting homage to linemen whose dedication enables telephone service. A display of their tools–heavy climbing spurs, sturdy leather belts, pliers and special testing equipment–gives visitors a sense of their hard physical labor required for keeping communication lines open.
Manual cord switchboards are an impressive centerpiece of the museum. Once used as the hub of communication networks before automated dialing was introduced, these massive panels of jacks provided operators with powerful tools for connecting callers. Volunteers from retired telecommunications professionals frequently demonstrate these processes at the museum for visitors – providing an intimate glimpse of just how much human skill was involved with every call that came through the system.
The Edmonton Telephone Historical Centre
The Edmonton Telephone Historical Centre is the largest institution of its kind in North America. Established by retired employees of Edmonton Telephone Exchange Limited (ED TEL), this museum was founded in 1987 to showcase communications technology’s development over time. Their exhibits attract both retirees and younger visitors interested in understanding its development; additionally they host many educational programs and group tours for visitors of all ages.
Artifacts from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop to modern multifunctional mobile phones can be found among its collection. Furthermore, there are manual switchboards featuring step-by-step private automatic branch exchanges to illustrate stepping switch principles; candlestick wall phones and wooden telephones with antique line insulators as well as two Kellogg universal switchboards are present alongside two Kellogg universal switchboards as well as an impressive assortment of glass insulators from its archiveal collection of filings for patents, engineering notes as well as oral histories from former telecom industry employees.
Churchill Wire building houses the Museum. Constructed for Edmonton Telephones in 1947 to house their expanding telephone network, its exterior prefabricated panels include polished black granite and cast terrazzo that create simple and smooth surfaces reflecting Art Deco design styles from that era.
The Bell Telephone Museum
The Museum at Roseville boasts one of the nation’s premier collections of telephone history. At its core lies an original 1876 Bell box telephone designed and used in Alexander Graham Bell’s Boston to Salem demonstration. Additionally, antique candlestick and early wooden wall phones, colorful antique line insulators, telephone booths, magneto switchboards that were actually in use by local phone companies during 1914, as well as numerous antique candlestick phones are on display. Visitors are encouraged to explore their creative sides using one of several antique rotary phones or by trying their luck on one of these magneto switchboards used by their local phone company back then!
The System Room presents an interactive timeline tracing the development of telecom innovations through full-scale mannequins and recorded narration. Visitors can learn about Alexander Graham Bell’s first patent for an “apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically,” as well as how the invention of telephone inspired further inventions and businesses.
The Museum offers an extensive collection of vintage telephones, from sleek Art Deco models to novelty Picturephones. A telephone exchange ringing machine converts backup battery power into AC electricity that rings all city telephones – another attraction. Visitors can try their luck at operating a switchboard or answering an emergency 911 call; and its volunteers strive to make learning about telephone operations engaging and fun for visitors of all ages.
