The Telephone Historical Centre archives boast a collection of Edmonton telephone directories dating back to 1895 as well as technical manuals and books on telecommunications technology and history.

From Alexander Graham Bell’s first patent of 1876 to modern-day mobile devices, this collection offers something special. Visitors will experience an educational and captivating trip down memory lane!

The History of the Telephone

The telephone revolutionized communications instantly and profoundly. From its initial use as a novelty until after WWII when its use spread worldwide, its development has been phenomenal.

Samuel Morse’s telegraph used electric signals to transmit coded messages using electric signals; Antonio Meucci, Charles Grafton Page, Johann Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber all created electromagnetic devices capable of transmitting sound or music, but Alexander Graham Bell became the first person to combine electromagnetism and voice communication when he patented his “speaking telegraph” in 1876.

Visitors to the Museum can experience various historical telephone exhibits, from wooden wall phones and rotary dialers to replicas of private automatic branch exchanges with glass insulators, poles, cables and splicing equipment — not to mention memorabilia! Founded by both active and retired telecom employees who lamented losing so many artifacts due to building demolition or department closure, visitors will discover numerous phone-related exhibits at this unique space.

The History of ED TEL

The Telephone Historical Centre was established by a group of retired ED TEL employees. It opened its doors for visitors on December 3, 1987 at its original Old Strathcona exchange building location.

Alexander Graham Bell invented and patented his revolutionary telephone in 1876, revolutionizing human communications across long distances with only voice communication. This monumental achievement opened up new channels of interaction.

Archives include numerous vintage Edmonton telephone directories as well as technical manuals and publications related to telecom. Photos document the history of telecommunications in Edmonton while records from legacy independent telephone companies based out of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Northwest Territories which ultimately became part of TELUS are also present within these collections; alongside stock certificates for these independents.

The History of the Roseville Telephone Company

With wooden box phones, candlestick phones and classic rotary dials on display at this exhibit, generations of men and women who erected poles, buried cables, designed telephone networks and helped install devices into homes and offices are honored as are all those employees that made our connectivity possible.

William Doyle, 38 years old at the time, launched a revolution when his local businessmen purchased Roseville Telephone Company in 1910. By using customer-driven management practices he brought innovation and change.

At 6:30 AM each morning, Doyle would respond to calls from women reporting their phonebooks had arrived wet and asking him to drop by with two new ones. His business soon flourished alongside its community; eventually it would become SureWest Communications which currently operates 13 exchanges in California as well as one study area (Note: ARMIS reports were not filed because revenues did not meet threshold).

The History of the Museum of Independent Telephony

Today everyone carries a phone in their pocket; this museum celebrates its predecessor. Anyone curious about how the telephone evolved from wooden wall mounted, hand cranked devices to our modern smart phones should visit.

Established by retired telco workers, this museum houses one of the world’s most extensive collections of antique telephone equipment and also boasts a fully restored original Bell workshop! Offering both guided and self-guided tours with exhibits covering its history ranging from working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical Central Office switches, to operator exchange reconstruction, glass insulators poles cables splicing equipment and glass insulators insulators as well as glass insulators poles cables splicing equipment this museum is truly a collectors dream!

Docents from current and former telecom companies who volunteer their services offer visitors an in-depth view of telecommunications’ history, helping visitors grasp how the telephone has revolutionized our lives!

The museum explores the inventions and innovations that have contributed to our communication network today, from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop all the way up to modern mobile phones.

The Telephone Historical Centre offers both discovery and entertainment, featuring working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office switches, lineman poles, cables and splicing equipment as well as an extensive cataloged reference library.

Educational Programs

Our museum houses a tangible history of telecom that can be explored either with guided or self-guided tours. Our collection comprises artifacts belonging to Violette & Bartlett families as well as collectors who worked in the telephone industry over time.

Our workshops foster enthusiasm for engineering by drawing inspiration from America’s fascinating telephone history. By employing electric theory, mathematics, and screw drivers to compare modern day semiconductor architecture with that of historic artifacts from telephone history, students gain an appreciation of what inspired its creation – an intrinsic curiosity which still drives today’s inventors and engineers.

Youngsters experience what it was like to attend an 1850s one-room schoolhouse using period desks, study books and writing slates from this customized program presented as either a lesson or activity for grades 4th-8th. For added pre-knowledge this can also be combined with Interactive Virtual Learning on The Battle of Ridgefield.

Workshops

Our Telephone Workshops engage students in an engineering activity designed to foster enthusiasm for electric theory and engineering by drawing upon America’s rich telephone history. By comparing contemporary semiconductor architecture with vintage tech, these workshops foster an abundance of curiosity that fuelled its groundbreaking invention as well as inspiring today’s innovators and inventors.

The museum’s collections span from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop to modern mobile phones. Exhibits include working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches, antique phones and switchboards, outdoor plant displays with poles, cables and splicing tools as well as a cataloged reference library of telephone related materials.

Skilled docents (both current and retired Bell employees) lead visitors around exhibits with enthusiasm and expertise, making this museum one of the few where visitors can touch and operate telephone equipment! Established by retired ED TEL employees in December 1987 in Old Strathcona and relocated in 2004, The Telephone Historical Centre’s mission is to collect, research, organize, document, exhibit, store and exhibit historical materials related to global telecommunications development both locally and worldwide.

Tours

Telecommunications History Group members are collectors and history enthusiasts dedicated to preserving the technology behind telephone industry. We provide an unprecedented opportunity to view telephones in their original settings; you’ll see their evolution from solid wood wall mounted operator directed devices all the way up to pocket sized cellular phones!

Explore the exciting history of telecommunications at one of Edmonton’s most engaging attractions: this museum. Accredited by Museums Alberta, it showcases hands-on exhibits that demonstrate communications principles, an exceptional multi-media Historical Telecommunication Theatre show experience, as well as an expansive collection of telephones and equipment.

This working museum makes for a fantastic family outing, school field trip or sight seeing tour. Visitors will discover antique phones, manual switchboards and original phone booths alongside fully operational panel and crossbar electromechanical central office switches, operator switchboards and outside plant displays including poles, cables splicing tools and equipment.

Special Events

The Museum provides a captivating journey back in history through its collection of antique telephones and switchboards, set against vibrant painted backdrops. Two switchboards (one from Plain’s last step-by-step private automatic branch exchange system and another from its panel system), antique line insulators, novelty phones, novelty phone cases and various forms of telecom equipment can be seen displayed here.

Exhibits provide visitors with an exciting peek back through more than 100 years of communications technology history in Roseville and nationwide. Skilled Museum docents – both current and retired Bell employees – enthusiastically guide visitors around exhibits to bring history alive!

The Museum’s collection also demonstrates how people celebrated holidays throughout time through images and objects that can be viewed or handled, with special hands-on Holiday programs offering more interactive experiences.

Visits to museums that chronicle telecommunications history can be fun and educational family excursions or school field trips. These museums honor those who built poles, laid wires and designed and implemented technology allowing us to stay in contact.

The Telephone Historical Centre in Edmonton, Alberta was founded by retired ED TEL employees in 1987 to preserve telecommunications history.

Museum of Independent Telephony

At this virtual telephone museum, you can learn about the history and impact of telecommunications technology on society. With historical photos and news articles as well as an impressive selection of telephones from different periods from which you can test yourself as an operator as well as gathering more insight into its creation from those involved in making history happen!

At this museum, visitors are immersed in retro telecommunications equipment from all eras of communication history – everything from two metal cans on wires to large switching systems that enable visitors to make calls across the room. Tours are led by knowledgeable guides who don’t hesitate to demonstrate this equipment – such as two giant cranks that enabled long distance calls!

This museum focuses on the history of independent telecommunications companies. When Bell Telephone’s patents expired in 1893, approximately 6,000 independent companies came into being all across North America. Additionally, the museum features an original C. W. Parker carousel dating from 1901.

Roseville Telephone Company Museum

Placer County offers many historical treasures from Auburn’s courthouse to Tahoe City’s ski legacy; but few destinations combine history, entertainment and education quite like Roseville Telephone Company Museum does. Situated in downtown Roseville and presented by SureWest Communications, it displays one of the country’s finest collections of antique telephones.

An guided tour through the museum transports you back in time as you pass relics that harken back to the golden age of landline telephones. Plus, get up close and personal with one of the first switchboards from 1914, complete with colored balls to signal calls and 25-foot phone cords! Guides who currently or retired employees of the phone company are there to share knowledge and entertaining stories from this piece of technological history; plus you’ll discover plenty of insulators of all sizes as well as classic rotary phones and novelty models!

Jefferson Telecom Museum

At Iowa’s historic Jefferson Barracks Park lies this museum that’s more than just an exhibition of old phones: It provides an interactive history lesson complete with working Central Office step switches, operator switchboards and military telephones as well as being an ideal destination for group outings. Run by Telecom Pioneers (retired Bell workers who run it as nonprofit organization), many artifacts came directly from pioneer basements, attics or personal collections of its members while its most valuable treasure – published less than a year after Alexander Graham Bell received his patent – remains hidden inside!

The library also houses an impressive collection of historical materials, including vintage telephone directories and technical manuals on telecom technology and history. A genealogy reference section is also available for researchers.

Oklahoma Museum of Telephone History

The Museum of Telephone History showcases an expansive collection of telephone items dating back to 1900. Displays include switchboards, crank wall phones and decorator phones as well as tools used by telephone linemen such as wax pots for dipping newly spliced wire and stretchers; in addition there is also a Wheatstone bridge which measures resistance in cables to locate trouble spots.

Bob McCoy, a retired Southwestern Bell engineer, started collecting old phone equipment. In 1997 he donated it to the Museum of Telephone History located on Dean A. McGee Street in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma Museum of Telephone History boasts a collection of varied items that offer insight into the Trans-Mississippi West history. These include diaries and journals, personal correspondence, literary manuscripts, scrapbooks, business records and much more. Furthermore, maps and posters from this era can also be found here as well as original volumes such as The Telephone: An Account of Electricity Magnetism and Sound which was published in 1877 by their Library.

Telecommunications history comes alive at this 4,500-square-foot museum. It chronicles and celebrates over 100 years of wired communication technology in Roseville, nationally and internationally.

Pole climbers, phone booths, telephone switchboards once used locally but now part of the Museum collection; wood-and-steel phones as well as one of the first cell phones can all be seen here.

History

With an expansive collection of phones spanning from the first telephone to mobile phones, this telecommunications museum makes an exciting stop for phone enthusiasts, history lovers and school groups on field trips. Colorful painted backdrops add vibrancy to equipment displays like operator switchboards, Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange systems and panel systems.

Prior to automated systems making telephone connections much simpler for users, calls between non-local numbers and local lines required manual transfer through a central office. Operators were often female; companies actively canvassed neighborhoods looking for suitable operators who could handle the switches of telephone switches.

As part of this enjoyable tour, current and retired Bell employees volunteer their services as guides for visitors through the exhibits. There are hands-on displays that spark children’s curiosity about technology and history; Boy Scouts may use this museum towards fulfilling Inventing and Engineering merit badge requirements; an original Kellogg Universal switchboard illustrates manual switching used at telephone exchanges before automated systems became commonplace.

Technology

The museum documents technological changes to telephones while collecting old models as reminders of what has come. Their collection features an exquisite full-sized magneto switchboard, step-by-step automatic branch exchange, and rare phone booths.

Walls within walls and anterooms were used to maintain stratification between ruling elites and middle and working classes before the telephone came into existence. A 1920s trade catalog announced it was difficult to imagine modern business being conducted without using phones.

The museum’s hands-on workshop allows children and young adults to discover electricity and engineering by capitalizing on America’s remarkable telephone history. By comparing modern day semiconductor architecture with historically significant artifacts, it arouses children’s curiosity similar to that which drove telephone inventors of years past. Furthermore, telecommunications related technology is available for educational and outreach activities within the community while there is also a library housing reference material and books related to telecom.

Artifacts

THG collections showcase many facets of modern telecom, from a book of sketches documenting its construction in Almonte-Pembroke in 1886 to fiber optic artifacts dating back to its first fibre optic tests in Brantford in 1917 and pieces used by linemen, tools for use during lineman tests, early Brantford tests wire, as well as albums full of stamps depicting this field from all around the globe. Of particular note are duplicate items placed in Beaver Hall building cornerstone, duplicate tools for linemen use and an early fibre optic artifact dating from 1917, plus albums full of stamps depicting all facets of telecom today from around the globe!

Colourful painted backdrops accent equipment displays, such as an operator switchboard and last step-by-step central office type switching system as well as crank wall phones. The museum is an engaging stop for phone enthusiasts, families and school groups touring Edmonton sightseeing tours or field trips.

THG was established by a group of telecom employees alarmed at seeing historical items being thrown away when buildings were demolished or considered obsolete. Now, THG maintains one of North America’s largest telecommunications reference libraries and two museums, housing thousands of pieces from wired communications history spanning Bell Canada’s early days, trans-Canada Telecom affiliates like Northern Telecom as well as foreign countries’ telecom materials.

Exhibits

Our museum boasts telephones from every era, such as Edmonton’s first manual system phone installed in 1878. Additionally, there are central office type switchboards, crank wall phones and hundreds of pieces of equipment, such as our fully functional operator switchboard.

Our collection boasts many rare artifacts, such as Alexander Graham Bell’s Gallows Frame Telephone and Thomas A. Watson’s Thumper Telephone, as well as Thomas A. Watson’s Thumper Telephone from Thomas A Watson himself. Additionally, there is a fully functioning stepping switch which shows how early telephones were connected together.

Telephone Historical Centre features an extensive library of telephony publications and materials, providing researchers and collectors with invaluable resources. An annual exhibition called “telephone show” gives local collectors an opportunity to display their memorabilia in an educational setting. Furthermore, workshops foster curiosity that led to telephone invention and teach children and young adults electrical theory and engineering using old telephones as well as modern day semiconductor technology.

Telecommunications equipment tells fascinating tales of innovation and culture. Teachers use this collection of items to ignite students’ intrinsic curiosity and foster an interest in engineering.

HBEC’s community-driven research approach is one of the hallmarks of its success, and this project illustrates how this method can be employed within pandemic situations.

Museum Exhibits

Our museum exhibits offer insight into technology, history, culture and people from many walks of life. With our large collection of telephones dating back from their initial use to contemporary models and equipment, come experience one of North America’s largest telephone museums!

Our exhibitions are enhanced by educational programs that educate visitors on the significance of nature. Students gain an appreciation of its value through a multi-sensory experience that includes touching, smelling and hearing about its treasures.

This groundbreaking app allows visitors to hunt for and collect plant and animal images from our William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings. Visitors can use the app to collect 69 images before using additional information about them once captured – creating an enjoyable interactive way for them to explore our exhibitions!

Museum Volunteers

The Museum Volunteers program is an engaging history program tailored specifically for your classroom, office, home or other group setting. Utilizing historic objects from our collections we can guide your students in developing observation and inference skills with object explorations, stories and activities from Ohio social studies standards as well as Common Core standards that can be delivered either remotely or physically.

Discover how Saratoga County residents celebrated holidays in the past through photographs and historical objects. Participants will discover traditions surrounding Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, Thanksgiving and other major holiday customs.

As part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, HBEC created a telephone outreach project in response to this pandemic to keep registry members engaged without physical events and programs. This initiative complements HBEC’s longstanding commitment to community engagement while still fulfilling their overall mission of supporting older adults and their caregivers across Texas.

Museum Archives

Telecommunication museums provide children and adults alike with an immersive history lesson of communication technology’s evolution from its original invention through today’s multifunctional smartphones. Museums preserve artifacts that illustrate its iterative design process while simultaneously stimulating visitors’ curiosity on how communication technology has profoundly transformed society.

Museum archivists are responsible for developing and upholding collections management policies that adhere to professional archival ethics and standards in their repositories. Where possible, they should adopt existing institutional policies and procedures as much as possible while when necessary creating tailor-made policies to fit their repository’s collecting scope.

Museum archivists should strive to collaborate with other manuscript collecting repositories when considering new acquisitions, in order to respect donor wishes regarding access restrictions and copyright. Furthermore, they will ensure their institutions can retain ownership of archival holdings while where applicable requesting that donors transfer copyright ownership through Deed of Gift documents.

Museum Collections

Telecommunication museums provide a tangible history of communication technology, offering visitors an easy way to understand its development in today’s interconnected world. By preserving rare models and prototypes, museum collections demonstrate how these processes shaped our connected lives.

This museum boasts operator switchboards and step-by-step automatic branch exchange systems as well as panel systems – an engaging destination for families, school field trips, and sightseeing tours of Edmonton. Its collection reveals how telecommunications have advanced since Alexander Bell first unveiled his phone in 1876 all the way up until mobile phones have taken their place as part of everyday life.

A museum’s governing authority serves as both a trustee and guardian of its assets, overseeing them for public use and respecting pluralism and diversity both inside the collection as well as among communities they serve. They must protect these assets as public resources while conducting all their activities for common benefit rather than private financial gain; museums that serve their local communities must find creative solutions to meet challenges presented to them by community service.