The Telephone Historical Centre Collections presents a history of communications technology from Alexander Graham Bell’s invention through to today’s mobile telephony systems, celebrating generations of workers who erect poles, install cables and design technological solutions.
From party line phones and Scobie store phones that graced suburban kitchen walls to novelty Princess phones, the museum houses an impressive assortment of telecom artifacts and exhibits including functioning switching equipment as well as an impressive library containing unique telephone publications.
Alexander Graham Bell Collection
This collection contains correspondence, diaries, notebooks and other writings by Alexander Graham Bell that cover his interest in various areas such as telephone technology, deaf education and experiments with aeronautics. Furthermore, family papers and material related to his life in Washington D.C. and Nova Scotia where he established a summer home and conducted many of his experiments can also be found here.
Bell was instrumental in helping the Smithsonian accept and showcase a collection donated by wealthy industrialist and collector Charles Lang Freer, creating the Freer Gallery of Asian Art as one of its premier exhibits devoted exclusively to Asian art.
Bell made another significant contribution with his invention of the telephone, which made long distance communications much simpler by transmitting sounds instead of written letters as was done through Morse code. This enabled families to remain in touch across long distances while opening the way for international business communications and personal connections.
Bell-Northern Research and Development Laboratories Collection
At the close of the nineteenth century, AT&T’s engineering department had grown so large that management decided a separate subsidiary should be created to handle research activities: Bell Telephone Laboratories. Both AT&T and Western Electric would jointly own this new company.
Bell Labs engineers contributed significant innovations, such as the panel switch, electronic amplifiers, synchronized sound motion pictures and transoceanic radio telephony to AT&T. One of their greatest accomplishments was solving AT&T’s greatest technical challenge – how to transmit telephone signals across continents.
After AT&T lost its monopoly status in 1984, its laboratories were distributed among Holmdel, Crawford Hill, Deal, Freehold, Neptune Township Murray Hill Piscataway Red Bank and Whippany. Subsequent to that federal court ruling, however, its laboratory divisions were disassembled; those continuing as AT&T Labs eventually split into seven regional “Baby Bells.” Gradually contracted out research was then transferred elsewhere with Murray Hill becoming Nokia Bell Labs while others such as Whippany Piscataway Red Bank being sold off to Lucent Technologies Alcatel-Lucent or Bayer Health Care among others.
Gridley Museum of Independent Telephony Collection
This museum honors generations of men and women who erected poles, buried cables, designed and managed an essential network of phone lines – whether through poles being raised to honoring them all the way down through poles being installed to candlestick wall phones to Kellogg universal switchboards! Through interactive exhibits such as candlestick wall phones or Kellogg universal switchboards this collection offers an educational journey into telecom history!
The Gridley Museum of Independent Telephony is one of 27 telecom museums nationwide, boasting an outstanding collection of vintage telephone memorabilia collected over time in Gridley – a small town situated in rural Illinois.
At first, a group of local residents examined the feasibility of creating a museum. When this investigation concluded, community donations helped fund this endeavor. Rogers Kaufman had all kinds of records, equipment and artifacts stored away in his company’s basement; realizing this as an ideal opportunity to open one himself.
Edmonton Telecommunications Museum Collection
The Edmonton Telecommunications Museum strives to educate the public on communications technology. Visitors can interact with old crank wall phones, decorator telephones and working switchboards at this museum. There are also working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switch equipment; antique phones; outside plant displays featuring poles, wire and splicing tools as well as an extensive cataloged reference library for researchers. Furthermore, this museum also provides educational programs for students, teachers and the general public.
The Museum of Telecommunications in Edmonton chronicles the development of telecommunications in Edmonton area and is a great way for families to explore how communication technology has progressed from wooden box phones lining walls to flip phones in our pockets. There’s even an impressive collection of antique line insulators and an archive library housing phone directories, scrapbooks, and technical manuals!
This museum, founded by retired employees from ED TEL and accredited with Museums Alberta in 1987, provides guided tours for school field trips as well as sightseeing excursions in Old Strathcona.
