THG was established by retired telecom professionals with a desire to preserve history. Their museum features working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical step switches as well as poles, cables and splicing equipment.

Children love listening to the clickety-clack of old telephones while older visitors recall memories about one-town phone companies they may remember from years past. Admission to this museum is completely free for everyone!

Educational Outreach Programs

Through our vast collection, we showcase the ingenuity, craftsmanship and industry of telecommunications. Visitors are encouraged to touch and explore various telephones, rotary dial machines, switchboards and other equipment from throughout history. Furthermore, visitors may observe how telephone technology has advanced from wall-mounted solid wood handsets with operator control dials all the way through solid wood wall mounts featuring hand cranks for operator-directed phone service to pocket sized touchscreen cellular phones today.

At our two-year longitudinal evaluation, we are testing the impact of our scalable STEM style program for children and teenagers that aspire to become engineers. Based on eight years of formative evaluation data that demonstrate improvement in participants’ engineering interest, science knowledge, history knowledge, mathematics knowledge and self-efficacy; workshops feature electric theory with particular attention being paid to Ohm’s Law, semiconductor technology and telephone collection collections – providing participants with opportunities to ‘take stuff apart’, stimulating that intrinsic curiosity that was the inspiration for early telephone invention and continues today among inventors and innovators.

Exhibits

Modern life cannot live without telephones; this museum pays homage to their ancestors by housing an extensive collection from Alexander Graham Bell’s workshop through modern day models. Archives contain unique original volumes such as vintage telephone directories and technical manuals. Crank wall phones and decorator phones, step switches and XY switches are among many fascinating objects housed here.

Since 1987 (first in Old Strathcona neighbourhood and later Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre), this telephone museum has become one of North America’s premier hands-on museums. Its collection includes working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches, antique telephones and switchboards, outside plant displays with poles cables splicing equipment tools as well as an expansive cataloged telecommunication reference library. Knowledgeable docents who volunteer their time from current or retired phone company employees show visitors through this fascinating facility while giving visitors an unforgettable experience of how communication technology has advanced from smoke signals to smoke signals dialers all the way through to smartphones in our pockets!

Group Tours

At this museum you’ll see working examples of telecom equipment dating back to wooden prototypes that launched it all through to electro-mechanical marvels that led us to computers and smart phones. Unlike most museums, visitors are welcome to touch and use telephones and switchboards in this interactive, hands-on exhibit.

Discover candlestick wall phones, classic rotary phones and novelty phones as well as a two-position Kellogg universal switchboard that lets you simulate manual line switching at phone exchanges before automation became commonplace. Also on display are step-by-step private automatic branch exchanges as well as various sizes and shapes of insulators plus outdoor plant exhibits with poles, cables and splicing equipment.

Group tours for groups of 10 or more can be arranged at least four weeks ahead, to save on admission costs. Leave the smartphone at home and come experience one of the largest telephone-related collections west of the Mississippi!

Contact Us

The Museum’s extensive collection of telephones and equipment spans more than a century of communications technology, showing its development from solid wooden wall-mounted phones with hand cranking operator control through to modern pocket sized touch-screen cellular phones with touch screens and pocket memory capabilities.

One of the premier hands-on museums in North America, this museum is dedicated to preserving, organizing, documenting and exhibiting Edmonton Alberta’s telecom history. Established by retired ED TEL employees in 1987 and relocated to Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre in central Edmonton since 1997, its exhibits include working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office type switching systems; outdoor plant displays featuring poles cables splicing equipment tools antique telephones crank wall phones decorator phones and switchboards that display how communication technologies have developed; working central office type switching systems along with plant displays including poles cables splicing equipment as well as displays featuring poles cables splicing equipment and tools as well as antique telephones that tell an amazing tale.

Tours of all ages can be accommodated, and an organized reference library offers additional research capabilities. Please contact the museum for further inquiries.

The telephone allows people to instantly communicate across language, culture and distance differences, helping bridge any potential divides that might exist in languages, cultures or distance. From wooden wall-mounted telephones that required hand cranking all the way to multifunctional touch screen smartphones of today – telephones have revolutionised societies by improving connectivity.

Telecommunications historical centers preserve telephone memorabilia and document the development of technology through museum displays. Some museums even maintain working panels and crossbar electromechanical central offices.

Telecommunications History Centres

Telecommunications History Centres are interactive museums that commemorate the history of wired telephone networks. They showcase working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central-office switches, outside plant displays of poles, cables, splicing equipment tools as well as antique telephones and switchboards in addition to having an outstanding archive of related reference materials.

The Edmonton Telephone Historical Centre opened in 1987 and remains one of Edmonton’s best family attractions. Housed within Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, this attraction houses an extensive collection of telephones dating back to 1878 – available for guided tours for groups of 10 or more visitors.

Retired and active telecom employees were outraged to see many historic items being thrown away as buildings were relocated or closed down, prompting them to found the Telecommunications History Group (THG), an international nonprofit with two museums and an outstanding archive specializing in telecom history. Furthermore, THG offers various outreach programs for schoolchildren.

Telephone Museums

A non-profit organization created by retired ED TEL employees, this museum preserves the history of telecommunications through antique switches, switchboards and crank wall phones used during earlier times – as well as tools your ancestors may have utilized themselves. Furthermore, educational programs at this museum further excite young minds about engineering and history.

The Museum offers everything from Alexander Graham Bell’s original box-shaped telephone to modern flip phones and everything in between, including open wire insulators and operator switchboards as well as wall-mounted magneto crank phones.

The Museum of Telecommunications Technology is an incredible source for anyone interested in learning about its evolution. Offering both guided tours and self-guided visits of its impressive collections – featuring functioning Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central-office switches as well as outside plant displays of poles, wires and splicing equipment; plus an outstanding cataloged telecommunications reference library – this museum celebrates the inventiveness, craftsmanship and ingenuity found within North American’s Telecommunications industry and stands as one of the largest such institutions in North America!

Telecommunications Historical Centres for Schools

Though modern phones may seem mundane now, when first introduced in the late 1800s they were revolutionary innovations. This museum showcases both social and technical history of telecommunications through both guided and self-guided tours ranging from solid wood wall-mounted telephones requiring operators to hand crank each call through to today’s pocket-sized touch screen cell phones, celebrating creativity, craftsmanship and ingenuity while informing visitors on how telecommunications have changed our world around us.

The Museum collection showcases fully operational pieces that demonstrate both the social and technical significance of this communication revolution, such as working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches; antique telephones; switchboards; outside plant displays with poles, cables, splicing tools and equipment as well as an extensive cataloged technical library. It makes an ideal family outing, school field trip destination or group sight seeing tour destination; it also serves as an engaging learning opportunity for Boy Scouts pursuing either Invention or Engineering merit badges.

Telecommunications Historical Centres for Group Sight Seeing Tours

No matter your interest – antique collector, historian or telecom worker – you’re sure to find a wealth of telecom historical centres offering an abundance of telephones and related equipment that are sure to please. These museums showcase how communication technology has developed locally as well as globally; making these venues perfect family outings, school field trips or sightseeing tour destinations.

The Museum of Telecommunications in Roseville California boasts one of the nation’s largest collections of antique telephones and memorabilia, from early wooden prototypes to modern cellular phones. Exhibits cover an extensive array of topics.

Established on December 3rd 1987 in Old Strathcona neighbourhood and later moving to Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, Edmonton’s non-profit Telecommunications History Centre provides acquisition, research, organization, documentation, exhibition and storage of telecom history materials. Offering hands on exhibits illustrating communication principles along with multi-media historical Theatre Show experiences for visitors!

Discover communication technology throughout its history at this fascinating museum, which makes for a wonderful family outing or school field trip experience.

This collection of artifacts ranges from wooden wall mounted phones and rotary dial telephones, as well as manual switchboards, to showcase Edmonton’s rich telecommunications history.

The collection fosters enthusiasm for engineering by featuring both modern and vintage technology in its collections.

The History of Telecommunications

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone revolutionized business communication by enabling employees to converse over long distances for the first time ever, enabling businesses to expand without leaving home or office locations.

Telecommunications technology has become an essential component of life today and running modern businesses would not be possible without it. From mobile phones in our pockets to videoconferencing in offices, these tools help us stay in touch with those and places we care about most.

This collection presents artifacts spanning the earliest telecommunications innovations – such as ancient signaling methods such as smoke signals and drum beating – all the way up to modern technologies like submarine cables and television. Furthermore, the exhibition honors generations of men and women who created communications networks by building poles, burying cables underground, designing technology to connect us and designing systems to support it all.

The History of Edmonton

Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta in Canada, is a bustling metropolitan hub with a long and rich history. At the Telephone Historical Centre there is an engaging collection of artifacts that provide a glimpse into this past through interactive exhibits and hands-on displays.

Edmonton was initially established in 1795 as Fort Edmonton on the North Saskatchewan River and named after Edmonton, England which lay to its north at that time.

Post became the main hub for Western fur trading activities; in 1892 the fort was renamed Strathcona and by 1905 Alberta had selected this location as its provincial capital.

Today, Edmonton is an energetic cultural, business and education center, as well as the hub of government services at both federal and provincial levels. Edmonton is also known as “Gateway to the North”, as its location marks an economic boundary between fertile prairies and resource-rich northern regions.

The History of the Telephone

Life without telephones would be unimaginable; their invention revolutionized our way of living and communication, making life simpler for everyone involved and providing great convenience and ease in our daily lives.

Alexander Graham Bell may be best-known as the inventor of the telephone, but Elisha Gray and he himself designed devices capable of electrically transmitting sound across telegraph lines – though Bell was first to present his design for patenting purposes and secured one.

Prior to Bell’s invention of the telephone, sound was transmitted across telegraph wires through mechanical vibrations. Antonio Meucci developed an acoustic voice-operated telegraph in 1854 while Thomas Edison experimented with this form of transmission in the 1860s.

At first, people used the telephone by traveling to a general store or other central location and using one there; privacy issues often presented themselves in homes as shared party lines made listening in on calls a possibility. Later, exchanges were developed that interconnected telephone pairs manually or automatically, providing long distance calling capabilities.

The History of the Telecommunications Industry

These individuals who erected poles, buried cables, designed and managed networks and installed telephones in people’s homes and offices were responsible for creating the significant advances to communication that we take for granted today. It is their legacy we honor.

Early wooden wall phones, rotary dial desk and cord pair phones with cord sets and an operator switchboard comprise this museum collection. An early pay phone and long distance timing device add further variety.

The museum emphasizes an interactive learning experience with knowledgeable docents leading visitors through exhibits. Our goal is not just to show how telephones work but also the history behind their development. Over the next century we plan to expand our collection of telecommunications artifacts and related materials from throughout history; plans include restoring Clinton central office type switching system as well as collecting historically significant street kiosks that have defined Canada since 1920.