Explore Alberta’s wired telephone history through virtual exhibits and digital collections. These items include vintage telephone directories, technical manuals and books related to telecommunications technology and history.
Educators and students can explore Sheldon Hochheiser, the museum’s archivist, to gain deeper insight into his collection’s strength and weaknesses. He discusses how educators and students may access this resourceful archive.
Collections
The collections housed at the Telephone Historical Centre are quite varied, spanning vintage phone directories and technical manuals from years gone by, to telecom research materials as well as one-of-a-kind books related to telecom technology and history.
THC’s library charts the development of wired communications from Alexander Graham Bell’s original invention through to modern wireless technologies, featuring many valuable original volumes such as 1877’s The Telephone: An Account of Electricity, Magnetism and Sound with Instructions for Making a Speaking Telephone written to meet public demand for more thorough explanation of this new device.
THC also houses an extensive collection of antique telecommunications equipment and artifacts spanning wall-mounted candlestick phones to operator switchboards to manually system telephones from Edmonton’s early telecommunications days – which can be experienced via virtual exhibits, digital collections and educational interactivity. Sheldon Hochheiser, the museum archivist, met up with us recently to talk about these collections as well as their strengths and unique characteristics.
Exhibits
The museum boasts one of the largest collections of antique telecommunications equipment in North America. Ranging from wooden box phones and candlestick phones to rotary telephones, the exhibit showcases how technological advancements in telecommunications have altered global culture over the last more than 100 years.
Visitors can gain insight into Edmonton’s manual system telephone network that was established in 1885 and how it has progressed to automated switching networks today. They can also try operating antique telephones like wall-mounted hand crank magneto and rotary phones as well as the working operator panel and crossbar electromechanical central office type switchboard.
The Museum boasts not only an extensive artifact collection but also offers books on telecom technology and history – such as vintage telephone directories, technical manuals, reference material and scrapbooks from local telephone companies – that provide invaluable historical knowledge. Students studying Alberta telecommunications history find the archive an invaluable resource.
Events
Edmonton’s independent museum dedicated to communications technology advancements showcases antique phones and switchboards from its collection, along with a cataloged telecom reference library – creating an experience both educational and enjoyable for family, school field trips or group sightseeing tours!
This collection showcases the history and evolution of telephone technology from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall phone with classic rotary dial to today’s multifunctional mobile phones, as well as Edmonton’s rich telecom history such as wooden three box wall phones, the first operator switchboard and more.
The archives house vintage phone directories, telecommunications technical manuals, books and other research references for research as well as historical local telephone company records such as ledgers, articles of incorporation, board meeting minutes and correspondence. Archivists encourage community-based archives staff and volunteer “citizen archivists” to help digitized historical records by contributing metadata tags, transcribing or annotating documents to enhance them further.
Education
Edmonton’s Telephone Historical Centre closed after 31 years, yet its collection remains accessible through online exhibitions and the museum archives – featuring vintage phone directories, technical manuals, books on telecommunication technology and history as well as more recently published works about these subjects.
Archive’s unique original volumes include, for instance, “The Telephone: An Account of Electricity, Magnetism and Sound”, published one year after Alexander Graham Bell invented it.
Group tours may be booked four weeks in advance. The museum is wheelchair-accessible and features an operating Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switch as well as operator switchboards, telephone-related tools, poles cables and splicing equipment displayed outside plant equipment splicing tools; students may compare telecommunication technologies from solid wood wall-mounted devices to sleek cell phones in use today as well as research the Bell System palaces that were constructed during the 1920s before writing reports about similarities or reasons for construction.
