The Collection features postcards, photographs and catalogues of equipment ranging from cigar box phones to modern Logic 10 instruments. In addition, there is extensive archival material from telephone companies dating back to 1915 when they built the first transcontinental line and customer comments from 1870s devices until today.
Exhibits
At this fascinating museum, visitors explore the technological innovations in telecommunications that have made our communication easy across distances. There are oversize models of telephones from different eras on display as well as interactive stations and background projections which demonstrate changes to this technology and its social repercussions.
Exhibits at Almonte-Pembroke Telegraph Company include numerous items including telegraph keys and replicas of Edmonton’s first telegraph line; tobacco pouch of company founder; books of sketches showing the construction of Almonte-Pembroke line; tools used by linemen; albums with international telecommunication stamps and tokens.
There is also a library full of telecom-related books, catalogues and technical journals at this museum – it makes for an intriguing trip for people of all ages and is one of the largest telephone museums in North America! You can visit on your own, with a tour group or as part of your sightseeing itinerary in Edmonton; its impressive archive collections make an educational field trip experience or family outing even more worthwhile!
Archives
The museum archives hold a wealth of information on the development and history of telecom. These include blueprints for New Haven’s Court Street building and diagrams for Coy switchboard, among many other artifacts pertaining to telephone history.
This collection offers an insightful glimpse into both the past of Bell System telephone companies as well as independent phone companies that once competed against it. Ranging from early telegraphs, stock certificates of various Bell Canada lexiconte telephone companies, postcards, maps and old phone books – the collection provides a window into how telecommunication technology has advanced since then and changed lives around us.
Arranges are underway to microfilm early binders and scrapbooks of news clippings which are quickly decaying, index the originals so they may be used by researchers and digitize certain issues for legitimate research purposes. A near complete set of original BT directories have also been collected with plans in place to digitally encode specific issues for authentic research use.
Events
Few inventions have had as profound an effect on business and society than the telephone, and its history is preserved at this museum, a non-profit 501(c)(3) that offers group and individual tours of its facility. Their collection covers over one century of technological innovation – from Alexander Graham Bell’s gallows frame phone to what powers our smartphones today!
The museum was established by retired ED TEL employees and is one of the largest telephone museums in North America. Housed within Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre, it displays equipment from different eras as well as an interactive talking robot known as Xeldon.
The museum boasts an extensive library of telephone-related materials, such as vintage directories and technical manuals. Students, researchers and members of the general public who want to explore more deeply into San Francisco’s telephone history may visit its archives; an excellent learning opportunity for families, school field trips or sightseeing tours!
