Mission of Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre: to explore and demonstrate the social and technical significance of telephone networks from 1876 until now through working equipment that provides tangible evidence of an evolving technology. Located in Edmonton, Alberta.
Established by retired ED TEL employees, this museum ranks among the largest of its kind in North America. Explore a vast collection of wooden wall phones, classic rotary phones and telephone artifacts including operating switchboards and tools.
History of the Telephone
The Telephone Historical Centre can be found in the former Cle Elum manual exchange and is the oldest complete phone museum west of the Mississippi. The Centre features phones and back-end switchboards from 1901 to 1970.
This vast cavernous space is filled with more retro communications technology than you’d find in an early James Bond film. Even smartphone-obsessed teenagers seem to take pleasure from fiddling around with this antiquated equipment, such as pulling two metal cans apart or dialing an actual working rotary phone (and yes, there are still functional models here!).
Volunteer Guides — who are either current or former AT&T employees — explain the history and development of telephone wires connecting the country. Our archives hold vintage directories dating back from 1895 up until present day as well as technical manuals; additionally they contain civil defense equipment provided by AT&T during World War I.
Early Wall Phones
Washington 501(c)(3) nonprofit Phone Museum was the first phone museum ever established in the US, preserving historical telephone equipment from its inception to present day. Their early wall phones include wooden, metal and even crank models that ring and dial when their tour guides touch their buttons.
Many volunteers at the museum were former telephone industry workers, providing an hour-long tour showcasing how telephones and their related hardware evolved over time.
Among its exhibits, the museum features old-fashioned telephone sets, wooden and metal wall mount phones, antique line insulators and antique line switches from bygone years. There’s also an operational panel-crossbar electromechanical central office switch. Archives contain photographs and oral histories from former phone industry employees; its cataloged telecommunications reference library offers services to visitors; group and individual tours are offered by retired ED TEL employees who established it and are accredited with Museums Alberta.
Telephone Sets
Here, the museum boasts an impressive collection of telephones spanning a century of communication innovation. Exhibiting how technology progressed from wooden prototypes to modern mobile-telephones is displayed here as well as working switching equipment demonstrating this development in communications technology.
Museum exhibits feature several early wooden wall phones, candlestick style phones and desk phones from the late 1800’s up until today’s smart devices. There is also a two-position Kellogg universal switchboard on display that gives visitors an experience manual line switching in telephone exchanges prior to automation taking over.
As opposed to most museums where visitors simply look and admire exhibits, this museum provides a truly interactive experience by allowing people to touch and use artifacts on display. Youngsters usually love dialing the rotary phone! This unique experience helps children understand and connect with the history of communications that have made our world such an interconnected one today – perfect for family outings, school field trips or group sight-seeing excursions!
Switchboards
The museum boasts an impressive collection, which includes several display cases filled with insulators of varying shapes, sizes and colors. Also featured is a wooden box phone, candlestick phone and classic rotary dial telephone for display purposes.
At one time, manual switchboards were an integral part of every central telephone exchange. An operator would sit before this board filled with rows of female jacks designated and wired as local extensions or trunk lines; each was associated with its own lamp.
This museum boasts working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central-office switches, outside plant displays with poles, cables and splicing equipment as well as a cataloged reference library. Knowledgeable docents – either current or former phone company employees-are on hand to guide visitors through these exhibits and share their expertise.
