From Alexander Graham Bell’s wooden phone to today’s sleek cellular phones, this museum provides an insightful view into the development of communications technology. Exhibits include working Step-by-Step and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches; antique wooden box phones; candlestick wall phones as well as one of North America’s largest reference libraries in telecommunications.

ED TEL Museum

The ED TEL Museum was an Edmonton, Alberta museum dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of telecommunications. Opening its doors on December 3, 1987 in Old Strathcona’s iconic telephone exchange building, its primary mission was preserving and sharing its collection. The Museum was home to an impressive collection of original telephones that allowed visitors to experience first-hand how telecommunications have advanced over the decades. Additionally, special exhibitions and tours were hosted regularly at this impressive space. Jamie Kelleher currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at the Museum, overseeing areas including human resources, capital projects, buildings and facilities management, data and technology systems, finance planning procurement visitor experience retail restaurants retail retail. Prior to that she served as curator at both Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History as well as Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Herschel Collection

The Herschel Collection, owned and managed by Telecom Pioneers – a non-profit 501(c)(3) Bell System employee service organization – features wooden box telephones, candlestick phones and classic rotary phones on display as well as working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office switches.

This collection tracks the evolution of communications technology from Alexander Graham Bell’s original laboratory prototype all the way through to modern mobile phones and everything in between. Each exhibit allows visitors to interact and uncover a fascinating tale about our collective connections to one another and our world.

Herschel Supply’s New Classics collection adapts past silhouettes to meet modern needs while preserving iconic Herschel designs that make this iconic brand so well loved. Combining sustainable materials and heritage-inspired details such as padded floating laptop sleeves, organizers and expandable water bottle holders. Herschel is committed to building a solid foundation for their future while upholding their legacy of innovation and design; click through the slideshow below for more information about each New Classics design!

The Museum of Independent Telephony

The Museum of Independent Telephony is dedicated to chronicling the development of telephone technology since 1876. From Alexander Graham Bell’s initial model to modern smart phones, this museum illustrates just how far telephone technology has advanced since 1876. Their collection includes switchboards, rotary phones and wooden wall-mount telephones as well as early flip phones and novelty princess phones; in addition they host members’ shows where collectors can buy or trade antique phone equipment.

The Museum of Independent Telephony at Dickinson County Heritage Center at 412 South Campbell Street in Abilene, Kansas is an unexpected gem that provides an amazingly in-depth history of telecommunications. Visitors can see first-hand what life was like for open wire telecommunication pioneers with interesting exhibits and rescued devices such as antique phones and insulators from its collection. Weekend tours are led by passionate volunteers who take great pride in showing visitors around this remarkable museum.

The Jefferson Telecom Telephone Museum

This museum houses an eclectic collection of telephone antiquities in the former Mountain Bell building and is operated by retired telecom employees who have extensive career experience within Arizona and Intermountain West technical heritage. They offer guided tours as well as boast an insulator collection as well as historic equipment dating back 120 years!

The museum houses working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office step switches as well as outdoor plant displays featuring poles with cable splicing equipment tools for poles with pole mounted cable splicing equipment, cataloged telecom reference libraries, knowledgeable docents (both current and retired), who guide visitors around the museum.

It is an amazing museum that could use more financial support to maintain it at its current condition. Well worth visiting; their insulator collection is magnificent and their organization makes you want to spend hours here! Please consider giving them your donation – you won’t regret it!

Telecommunications museums serve as centers for collecting, researching, organizing, documenting and displaying material related to telephone history. Their collections capture people’s imagination by appealing to their natural curiosity about phones – from Alexander Graham Bell’s original solid wood wall-mounted phone with operator direction through today’s multifunctional mobile phones.

Museums offer educational outreach workshops for both children and adults that compare modern communication technology with vintage telecommunications equipment. Their volunteers lead tours, supervise youth activity tables and catalog memorabilia; some even possess professional artifact handling or library/archives experience.

The New Hampshire Telephone Museum

The New Hampshire Telephone Museum provides visitors with an experiential history of telecom. Housed in Warner, it boasts over 1,000 artifacts from collections curated by Violette and Bartlett families who worked in telecom for 85 years, and Garry Mitchell from Connecticut who pioneered telephone work himself. Furthermore, public programs are regularly hosted at this facility.

The museum’s interactive displays offer visitors an insight into how phones have developed over time, from rotary to flip phones. There is also a large collection of novelty phones such as Princess models.

Visitors can discover the museum’s exhibits through guided or self-guided tours, with flexible hours that allow for last minute visits. For more information visit the museum website.

The Telephone Museum of Edmonton

The Edmonton Telephone Historical Information Centre is an innovative museum that explores the development of telecommunication technology over history, offering visitors a glimpse of how communication has transformed over time and appeals to technology enthusiasts as well as those looking for cultural impact analysis. Furthermore, this facility hosts multi-media presentations by an interactive robot named Xeldon who chronicles innovation history in telecommunications.

Visitors to this exhibition can try their luck using vintage rotary phones, experiment with an intricate operator switchboard, and witness how telephone technology has changed from wooden wall-mounted devices to multifunctional mobile phones with multifunctional capabilities. The collection inspires curiosity about engineering while showing how iterative design processes result in the interdependent technology we rely on today.

The Museum also provides educational outreach programs to children and youth to increase awareness of technological and societal change over time. Through its volunteer program, individuals of all ages come together to lead tours, manage youth activity tables and catalog memorabilia (many with formal artifact handling or library/archives experience). Off-site community educational events for adults are hosted as well as Traveling Trunks that bring artifacts directly into communities without their own museum.

The Antique Telephone Collectors Association

Telephone collectors are dedicated to the preservation and study of antique telephony. They collect, restore and build kits for replicating original equipment as well as compiling historical data sheets on over 375 companies since its invention – all while organizing annual shows, buy/sell/trade/wanted forums as well as sending out monthly newsletters containing phone/part ads from fellow members.

Our Telecommunications Artifact Collection incites interest in engineering by tapping into people’s natural curiosity about America’s remarkable phone history, while encouraging entrepreneurialism that spawned it. Museum volunteers play an integral part in supporting this program by leading tours, managing youth activity tables, cataloguing memorabilia (some even possess formal artifact handling or library/archives experience), leading tours or cataloguing memorabilia (including formal handling or library/archives experience for some volunteers).

The club provides an on-line Google listserv where members can communicate and exchange information, while regional shows bring together collectors from all across the United States. Furthermore, this site hosts past newsletters as well as historical data on various companies, manufacturers and distributors; also providing members a member directory to meet like-minded enthusiasts sharing an interest in old telephones.

The E.H. Danner Museum of Telephony

The E H Danner Museum of Telephony celebrates technology’s revolutionary impact on society with an extensive collection of telephones dating from early telecommunications devices up to modern smartphones.

The museum’s collections spark people’s natural interest in innovation, culture and technological change – from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall-mounted phones with operator direction to modern multifunctional smartphones. Furthermore, its collection chronicles local telephone industries through directories and personal narratives.

At its core, Fort Concho Museum provides an escape into another time, when notifications were not a daily fixture on our smartphones regarding ex-lovers or coworker wedding plans. Its telephones and switching equipment offer a welcome antidote for smartphone apocalypse while giving a glimpse into life without techno-stress. Established in 1992 by volunteers at Officers’ Quarters 4 at Fort Concho National Historic Landmark near San Angelo Texas; open to visitors year round!

The Telephone Historical Centre offers visitors a fascinating look into Edmonton’s telecommunications history with the help of Xeldon the talking robot and captivating historical footage. Unfortunately, due to relevancy and financial issues it had to close in 2019 but its collection of antique telephones and technology remains open for visitors to discover.

Sheldon Hochheiser, director of archives at the museum, shared his in-depth knowledge about its collections with me.

ED TEL Archives

Established by retired employees of ED TEL, this museum provides guided and self-guided tours for visitors. Visitors can learn about communication design and technology before Apple entered the scene; view Edmonton’s first import phone; classic rotary phones and an operating switchboard are among other exhibits; while linemen’s tools and antique line insulators complete the collection. ED TEL Museum is accredited with Museums Alberta and also features Alexander Graham Bell’s wooden-framed experimental device as part of his original inventions.

The ED TEL Archives receives over 1.2 million searches each month, providing access to a collection of electronic resources that would normally require libraries individual subscriptions alone. It’s particularly valuable for rural and smaller libraries who cannot afford large subscriptions; and committed to improving its cataloguing in accordance with professional archival standards.

ED TEL is a state-funded program run by the Tennessee Electronic Library that saves libraries money by giving equal access to electronic databases from four vendors – with over 70 databases accessible anywhere with Internet connectivity.

AT&T Archives

Description of Corporate Archives for Former American Telephone and Telegraph Company and Its Successors (AT&T, AT&TX and predecessor companies), which contain Western Electric files; Hawthorne files; research and development collections from Bell Labs as well as thousands of photos and artifacts from these archives. Furthermore, access may be granted primarily for company business but external requests will be reviewed on an individual basis. Conditions for Access are as follows: Primarily available only within company business settings but requests from external parties will be addressed on an individual basis. Access for external requests will be assessed case by case basis. Conditions for Access: Primarily for company business use but external requests will be addressed case by case basis. Conditions for External Requests will be taken seriously upon application. Conditions for Access: Priority given for company business use but external requests will be evaluated on an individual basis depending on circumstances. Conditions for Access: Primarily restricted according to company business needs but external requests will be taken seriously upon receiving approval. Conditions for Access: Primarily restricted as appropriate but external requests will be taken seriously upon consideration on a case by case basis and approved depending on circumstances. Conditions for Access: Primarily intended use, although requests will be evaluated on an individual basis as appropriate. Conditions: Primarily limited requests will be taken into consideration depending upon availability. Conditions for Access: Primarily restricted with regards to company business purposes although external requests will be evaluated separately according.

Sheldon Hochheiser, the archivist responsible for overseeing this collection, notes one of its primary challenges is that many collections arrived at the archive with disparate cataloging systems – making it “extremely quirky” to integrate them all under one system.

Thomas Watson’s notebook from March 10, 1876 recording Alexander Graham Bell’s first successful transmission of intelligible speech is one of the collection’s most famed artifacts, while another famous item in its arsenal is “Claude E. Shannon’s Mighty Mouse”, a crude protocomputer made out of electrical relays created to demonstrate his ideas regarding switching relays.

Bell Canada Archive

Bell was rapidly expanding its Canadian phone services with its government-granted monopoly and installed one million telephones within eight years after World War II had concluded.

Bell employees initially established the Collection as an effort to save examples of obsolete equipment that would otherwise have been thrown away, with telephone switches, insulators and other artifacts becoming the hallmarks of its entirety. Over time it grew even larger.

Photo Collection Highlights include photos documenting the establishment of the first transcontinental line in 1915, round-the-world call in 1935 and Newfoundland (Defence) Project during World War II in 1940s as well as postcards and tape recordings featuring Thomas Watson talking with Alexander Graham Bell as well as President Nixon speaking with astronauts on the moon.

Other noteworthy items include a book of sketches detailing the construction of Almonte-Pembroke lines, founder’s tobacco pouch and tools used by early linemen; duplicates of items placed in Beaver Hall building cornerstone; as well as a very rare Western Electric Catalogue which may have been published around 1907.

The Virtual Museum of Telecommunications

The Virtual Museum of Telecommunications features an artifact collection from telephone companies around the world. These exhibits celebrate those responsible for building and managing communication infrastructure – from early smoke signals to text messaging – while also showing their significance in shaping modern society. Furthermore, there is an impressive range of objects from Bell’s Bell Collection on display here, including several rotary dial phones.

Museums participate in the Connected Earth cooperation, an effort designed to give access to historical telecommunications objects held by museums in England and Scotland. Furthermore, Museums may share virtual collections or content held within their walls with one another.

Virtual museums can be defined in many different ways and their definition can vary according to disciplines involved, such as computer science, library and information science or museology – each field may develop their own definition for what constitutes a virtual museum.