Telecommunication museums preserve artifacts that teach both children and adults about the development of communication technology, as well as unique models and prototypes that illustrate iterative design processes that have helped create today’s interdependent world.
This section details a telephone outreach program implemented by HBEC staff and registry participants during the Covid-19 pandemic to stay in contact with older adults, along with its key results and lessons learned, to encourage project replication.
Educational Outreach
Telephone Historical Centres serve as centers of acquisition, research, organization, documentation and exhibition for materials related to telecommunications history. Their collections spark curiosity about technology, innovation and culture – from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall-mounted phones with operator direction through to today’s multifunctional smartphones.
Museum collections often showcase working telecommunications equipment that highlights the iterative design process behind our increasingly interdependent communication technology world. They also chronicle local telephone industries through directories, photographs and personal narratives.
Telecommunications museums provide educational outreach programs designed to familiarize children and youth with technological and societal changes over time. Their educational workshops often correspond with school curriculum requirements. Furthermore, many host off-site community educational events for adults. Some organizations even host Traveling Trunk programs which bring curated selections of artifacts and resources directly into communities that cannot visit the museum itself – these community outreach offerings can become great sources of revenue for museums!
Public Tours
The Museum houses an expansive collection of telephones and equipment from throughout history – showcasing creativity, craftsmanship, and innovation that contributed to modern connectivity. Children and adults can experience pivotal moments in telecom history by touching devices that made it happen.
At Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Complex in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada lies this fascinating museum established by retired ED TEL employees in 1987. Now known as one of North America’s largest phone museums and an ideal destination for visitors of all ages!
Museum guests can experience classic rotary dial phones, experiment with an intricate panel switchboard, and gain insight into how telephone technology has progressed from wooden wall-mounted devices to portable, sleek cellular phones during their visit. Plus, guests can take part in a multi-media presentation featuring Xeldon, an interactive robot who chronicles its long and varied history – perfect for learning about its history as an effective means of communication today. These programs serve as an introduction to telecommunications history as well as its iterative design processes that produced what we rely on today.
Memorabilia Collections
Memorabilia collections allow visitors to step back in time and appreciate the history of telecommunications. From telephone models to an entire museum’s worth, memorabilia allows people to take an educational step backward and experience its development over time. Exhibits showcase how inventiveness and craftsmanship led to modern connectivity while cultivating entrepreneurial spirits driving future technological developments.
Gridley Museum of Independent Telephony (now closed) was an innovative non-profit founded in 1990 by retired and active employees to honor the small independent phone companies that served rural America after Alexander Graham Bell’s patents expired, featuring an authentic recreation of an old telephone exchange and including antique phones with colorful glass line insulators displays.
It also pays tribute to generations of men and women who spent their careers climbing poles, burying cables, designing technologies to connect us all, designing infrastructure solutions that helped people live fulfilling lives – including themselves! – all while simultaneously building our society. The museum collection includes personal scrapbooks, coffee mugs and other personal keepsakes from this industry which touched and changed many lives – these items help paint an overall picture.
Volunteers
The Telephone Historical Centre showcases antique telephones and equipment, providing visitors with an immersive journey through telecommunications history. Their impressive collections encompass early manufacturing stages to modern research laboratories. Volunteers also help connect museum visitors to this history through tours or by working with memorabilia.
The center offers an active volunteer program, which requires applicants to fill out an application, pass a background check and provide proof of vaccinations before attending training and orientation sessions. They offer flexible shift options for museum tour guide and historic house interpreter roles at the facility.
Museum Ambassadors aim to ensure visitors get the most out of their visits by greeting groups, circulating through public zones answering queries and directing people towards programs and exhibitions. Behind-the-Scenes volunteers assist with many projects including archives, libraries and administrative offices as well as conservation laboratories and curatorial divisions; additionally they may volunteer at special events and exhibit installations; often they are former or current telecom employees with firsthand knowledge about innovation, culture and technological change that they can share through storytelling.
