Make history come to life through education and inspiration! From ancient telegraphs to sleek mobile devices, this museum makes complex communication innovation accessible and engaging for visitors of all ages.
At one of the world’s premier museums for telecom innovation, visitors experience all aspects of telecommunications history ranging from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall-mounted phones with operator direction up through contemporary cell phones.
Hands-on Experiences
This museum was designed by a former Bell System employee and serves as an artifact repository from early communication technology. The exhibits showcase how telephones have advanced over time from wooden wall-mounted operator phones to today’s sleek cellular pocket cell phones.
Visitors to the museum can take an engaging, hands-on journey through its interactive exhibits, such as a working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switch, antique wooden box phones and candlestick wall phones, classic rotary phones and an extensive National Kiosk collection.
Telephone museums also convey the human stories behind telecommunications development. At Roseville Phone Museum’s “Switchboard Alley” exhibit, for instance, visitors gain insight into the lives of women telephone operators as they faced unique challenges and used various tools such as linemen’s climbing spikes and safety belts to connect distant voices across large wire networks spanning the nation.
Traveling Trunks
Traveling Trunks provide schools and community organizations with an curated collection of objects, books and hands-on activities for two week checkout, providing educators with tools to teach specific chapters of American History that align with state social studies requirements.
Established by retired telecom professionals, the Edmonton Alberta museum invites visitors to experience innovation, culture and history as they walk through its extensive collections – from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall-mounted phones that require operator direction up until today’s sleek mobile phones.
This trunk features high quality reproduction clothing, shoes and objects used by slaves; documents from Frederick Douglass and John Brown that shed light on slavery’s institution as well as their contributions towards its abolition; as well as critical thinking questions to stimulate thinking.
Oral History Project
Telephone historical centers serve as research, organization and documentation centers for documents related to telecommunications history. Their vast collections display how communications technology has progressed from Alexander Graham Bell’s wall-mounted wooden phones with operator direction all the way through to multifunctional cell phones used today.
Some museums take it one step further by providing working models of telephone exchanges that visitors can explore in depth, featuring all the mechanical whirring and clunking associated with antique systems in use. This experience brings history alive for students as they gain more insight into how new technologies impacted society over time.
Other museum programs involve conducting oral histories with veterans. This can range from having students interview local veterans, to professional military historians conducting in-depth interviews of New York State’s World War II Veteran community.
Museum Ambassadors
Museums like Edmonton Alberta’s house a collection of artifacts that span the history of communications technology from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop all the way to mobile phones we carry in our pockets today. Their archives contain vintage telephone directories, technical manuals, oral histories from former telecom workers as well as oral histories written about by former workers themselves.
Oral histories offer an intimate connection with the past, capturing societal perceptions and lived experience that may become lost within technical documentation of telecom history. Such historical insights shed light on larger issues like broadband access disparities; reminding us that technology’s benefits do not automatically accrue to all and require concerted societal effort in order to create equitable access for all.
Volunteer staff provides education initiatives with assistance by leading tours, running youth activity tables, cataloging memorabilia (some volunteers have formal artifact handling or library/archives experience), greeting groups as they circulate or answering inquiries about exhibitions or programs.
Volunteer Opportunities
Becoming a Telephone Buddy and reaching out to older adults from your own home to check in, share memories or discuss current events is easy and rewarding! Society Team Leaders will support both of you as you collaborate to strengthen community ties, foster well-being and connect older adults with appropriate services.
Historic Richmond Town’s volunteers welcome guests in its visitor center (Third County Courthouse), act as docents during tours of its historical museum, and circulate throughout Main Village site to offer wayfinding assistance and answer visitors’ inquiries. Behind-the-scenes, volunteers also assist library archives conservation laboratories and event planning efforts.
The Museum’s collections span communications innovation from Alexander Graham Bell’s early wall mounted operator directed phones made of solid wood to today’s multifunctional pocket cell phones. Volunteers aid the curatorship process by seeking out former telecom pioneers and asking them for donations of memorabilia from their garages and sheds.
