This volunteer-run museum located inside an actual telephone building provides visitors with an enjoyable trip down memory lane. From vintage switchboards and old directories, to oral histories from former telecom workers and more.

Sheldon Hochheiser is responsible for this vast archive, and we recently interviewed him to gain more insight into The Herschel Collection (THC) and its various holdings.

Museum of Independent Telephony

The Museum of Independent Telephony pays homage to those often forgotten heroes of telecommunications–non-Bell System telephone companies that provided service in rural and middle America outside the Bell System. Exhibits at this museum include recreations of an old telephone exchange, displays of glass insulators and vintage phones from these pioneering firms.

Established in 1987 in Edmonton’s Old Strathcona neighbourhood, and relocated later to its present site within Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre. Now one of North America’s largest collections for group tours.

The Telephone Museum traces the development of telephone technology from Alexander Graham Bell’s first message to Watson up through its development into modern mobile phones, featuring many interactive exhibits, hands-on activities and oversize models that make learning fun for visitors of all ages. There’s even an automatic branch exchange complete with step-by-step instructions as well as an early telephone office replica! In addition, there’s a collection of open wire five and six arm ARA structures as well as other odd items!

Roseville Telephone Company Museum

Roseville Telephone Company Museum boasts one of the world’s premier collections of antique telephones and memorabilia, chronicling and honoring over 100 years of telecommunications history both locally and nationally. Knowledgeable docents (current and retired employees from Roseville Telephone) guide visitors around this 4,500-square foot museum that houses everything from early telephones from Alexander Graham Bell’s workshop all the way up to wireless phones that we all recognize today.

Roseville Museum is an invaluable destination for any individual or group interested in history, old gadgets or learning more about how we use technology every day. Ideal for family weekend outings, school field trips and group sightseeing tours alike!

Bell Canada’s Telephone Historical Collection

This collection comprises over three and a half million paper documents and 25,000 pieces of equipment dating from the late 1800s to today, dating from late 1898 until today. This research archive puts particular focus on Bell Canada’s role in telephone history; yet does not comprise an exact company archive.

At the turn of the 20th century, Bell was expanding its presence across Canada. Because the Canadian government regulated telephone rates, their corporate genealogy chart illustrates how slowly they acquired competing operations in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and prairie provinces to gain greater market dominance.

Photographs form an essential part of the collection, depicting internal and external events as well as Bell products and services. Many photographs come complete with press notices and advertising copy to complement them, serving to inform employees through Tielines of activities in other divisions or regional Bell offices.

Hello Montreal!

Adrian Morillo has made it his mission to capture the many aesthetics that make up Montreal life since moving here in 2015. An experienced photographer and multimedia designer, Adrian has worked in cinema productions, press coverage, advertising campaigns, social media posts and audiovisual courses as part of his interdisciplinary practice.

On 22 March 1928, when the first two-way radio telephony signal crossed from Ottawa to Montreal for transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, it made headlines worldwide and propelled Irving Berlin’s hit “Goodbye Broadway, Hello Montreal”, an infamous period novelty song about crossing into Canada for an alcohol break during American Prohibition.

Pointe-a-Calliere is proud to host Hello Montreal!, an engaging exhibit which highlights the history and role of telephony in our lives. The exhibition showcases an exquisite magneto switchboard used in an exchange in Montreal in 1920, an impressive battery switchboard of staggering size and complexity; as well as numerous rotary dial telephones, pushbutton models, cell phones and more!

The Telecommunications History Group, a nonprofit corporation, manages the Telephone Historical Centre as well as operating an extensive research archive of telecommunications history. Furthermore, this entity manages both its Connections Museum and extensive telecommunications research archive.

Tours of the Bell family home and Canada’s first telephone office can be booked ahead with THG for guided visits that may also include limited diagnosis and repair of older telephones.

General Admission

The museum exhibits showcase telephone equipment from all eras. Visitors will gain a deep appreciation for how this revolutionary invention has revolutionized human communication over time.

Exhibits at this museum include an entire Clinton Central Office switchboard; a Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange (demonstrating stepping switch principle); a mobile phone exhibit tracing its development from 1980s car phones to today’s handheld devices; as well as many other fascinating artifacts.

Visitors can explore the Museum on their own, or join a guided tour. Group tours for groups of eight or more are available hourly from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with last entry 30 minutes before closing time. General admission tickets are valid during museum operating hours on your day of visit. It is operated by Telecommunications History Group – a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation operating a research archive in Denver.

Self-Guided Tours

Historical attractions or museums that host self-guided tours can greatly benefit from offering them. Not only will guests find them convenient and beneficial, but you will be able to limit group sizes while lightening the burden on tour guides.

The museum boasts an extensive collection of early wall phones spanning solid wood models to the sleek modern devices now ubiquitous worldwide. Visitors can witness first-hand how telecommunications have developed from Alexander Graham Bell through to today’s mobile phones.

The Telephone Historical Centre offers self-guided paths designed to offer visitors a more customized experience. Each path features an interactive map with suggested points of interest to visit, including informational museum plaques and audio, immersive panoramic photos featuring up to 10 embedded hotspots that highlight more specific stories or historical facts, scannable links, Goosechase Experiences or scannable links that create a fully customized tour experience that they’ll want to tell their friends about!

Group Tours

The Roseville Telephone Museum boasts one of the largest collections in North America. The exhibits document and celebrate more than 100 years of communications technology use within Roseville and internationally, including some phones which ring or even dial! Many phones on display can even ring!

It is an ideal place for both children and adults alike, providing learning, fun, and history at every turn. All staff and volunteers at Telecom Pioneers – an educational non-profit 501(c)(3) organization – are current or former Bell System employees with years of service under their belts.

Visitors to the museum can see how telephone technology has progressed over time, from Alexander Graham Bell’s original wall-mounted and hand-cranked model to an exact replica of the phone that announced “Mr. Watson, I need you!” There are also mechanical switchboards and a Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange demonstrating its stepping switch principle on display, along with a wide variety of insulators spanning various shapes, sizes and colors – perfect for family visits, school field trips and sight-seeing tour groups alike!

Special Events

The Museum boasts an expansive collection of telephones and related equipment from all eras. Additionally, working pieces provide tangible evidence of an evolving technology. We celebrate the ingenuity, craftsmanship and industry that built this vital communication network that has transformed human life from drums and smoke signals to modern cell phones in every aspect.

Discover how things work at this hands-on, how things work telephone museum with one of North America’s largest collections! Enjoy an interactive family experience, educational field trip or group outing here.

Housed in an impressive 1906 building, the New Mexico Communications History Museum provides an incredible array of communications history in an accessible and enjoyable manner. Operated as a 501(c) non-profit corporation by volunteer Pioneers and Bell System retirees as a non-profit corporation, funding comes from membership dues, research fees and grants; its website remains ad-free.

From rotary dial phones to mobiles, this collection of artifacts traces the development of communications technology. Additionally, they pay tribute to generations of men and women who built telephone networks by erecting poles, burying cables underground, designing technology platforms to operate them, installing them into homes and businesses and installing telephones themselves.

Rogers Kaufman, retired president of Gridley Telephone Company, spent years collecting items and documents with hopes of opening a museum in downtown Gridley.

Telephone Directories

Telephone directories (commonly referred to as white and yellow pages, phone books, contact lists or contact directories) contain alphabetically-arranged lists of residential and business telephone subscribers that include their names, street addresses and phone numbers in one section and business type information in another. At The Telephone Historical Centre Collections we hold an impressive selection of white and yellow directories.

Telephone directories can be an invaluable source for uncovering more information about how our ancestors lived and worked, chart transit maps, locate seat numbers at stadiums or restaurants and even finding the zip code of an ancestral hometown.

Before phone companies started charging for directory assistance, many people turned to local telephone directories as an effective way of circumventing such fees. Today, online directories make accessing yellow or white pages more convenient while still serving its core purpose: helping us locate those we need to contact.

Telephone Equipment

This collection celebrates the equipment that enabled telecommunication and pays tribute to generations of men and women who worked tirelessly on its establishment: they installed poles and cables underground, designed and managed technology used for its operation, installed telephones in people’s homes and businesses and more.

Our Collection boasts some of the oldest and most intriguing pieces of telephone equipment ever manufactured, such as the iconic red K-6 British call box made available to us by an enthusiastic Seattle radio amateur (or “ham”).

Subscribers lease equipment from their phone company, such as operator switchboards and hundreds of phones rented to subscribers from that provider. There are lit glass racks filled with candlestick and box phones; there are rotary dials; there are even novelty telephones like McKinley phones used over 100 years ago to report his assassination – these items make great collectibles!

Telephone Networks

Telecommunications have undergone immense change since Alexander Graham Bell first created his attic workshop back in 1876. This section of the museum traces this journey, detailing technological innovations and businesses which have emerged since.

The collection boasts an assortment of phone-related artifacts from field phones used during anti-Japanese war to office phones that once dominated business to home phones of various types and more.

This collection also provides an insight into the network that has been built to transport and route all these calls – such as networks using copper wires to connect homes and offices across cities and states; more automatic systems connecting customers directly to the national Public Switched Telephone Network; as well as modern wireless cellular phone networks using microwave technology that relay signals between cell towers and our phones – this virtual museum serves as an invaluable source of historical knowledge about all these networks.

Telephones

Telephone Historical Centre Collections showcase an astounding history of technological development since Alexander Graham Bell first patented his basic design. These telephones honor generations of individuals who worked tirelessly to construct and manage public switched telephone networks through erection of poles, burial of cables, designing technology platforms and making everything function efficiently.

This collection offers something for everyone – from general audiences and collectors, to telecom historians. It features working switching equipment and 32 kiosks of various designs as well as an operator switchboard from Winter Park Telephone Company as well as numerous home phones.

The museum is particularly proud of its gourd telephone, an innovative wall variation on the box phone which allowed executives to communicate with their assistants or courtiers from an anteroom without breaking stratification between lower and upper classes and providing security. It also contains many telephones from local homes – including one which enabled a grocery store owner to personally take orders from his customers on his personal line.