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.
