The Telephone Historical Centre preserves and exhibits antique telephones and telecommunications equipment. As North America’s premier museum of its kind, this attraction is sure to entertain all ages.
Discover the history of communications technology from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop to modern mobile phones. Step inside a manual switchboard or Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange which illustrates stepping switch principle; explore glass insulators collection; step inside manual switchboard.
Educational Programs
The Telephone Historical Centre is one of North America’s premier telephone museums, dedicated to collecting, researching, organizing, documenting, exhibiting and preserving historical materials on telecom developments locally and worldwide. Established by retired ED TEL employees in December 1987 in Old Strathcona before relocating to its current home at Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre in 2004.
Our museum exhibits offer a fascinating journey through communications history from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop to today’s mobile phones. Their vast collection features antique telephones and equipment, manual switchboards, recreations of independent telephone exchanges that served rural Midwest communities outside Bell System exchanges as well as glass insulators from every era imaginable.
Classroom Outreach programs offer teachers and their students an educational experience that meets state social studies standards while using authentic artifacts as teaching tools. Our educators can visit your school, community education center or business to host an engaging interactive lesson focusing on telecommunications history.
School Outreach
School outreach programs introduce students to community issues while stimulating skills development that they can apply directly in their daily lives. By amplifying students’ voices by connecting economic, political, and societal forces that affect them directly, school outreach programs empower young people to become agents of change within their local communities.
The Telephone Historical Centre gathers, researches, organizes, documents, displays and stores historical materials pertaining to North America’s telecom history. With a museum, library and outstanding archive encompassing physical items as well as digital resources – it is truly an institution with something for everyone in this regard!
Join the museum on an engaging exploration of communications history with an interactive tour through their exhibitions spanning from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop to pocket cell phones! Explore a working manual switchboard, discover the science of telecom systems and technology, visit our amazing glass insulators collection and gain insight into non-Bell System telephone exchanges that served small town Midwest communities and rural areas – not forgetting tools of trade for linemen as well as recreation of one such independent exchange!
Community Outreach
The Telephone Historical Centre provides an unparalleled account of North American telecommunication history through an impressive collection and archives. As one of the premier telephone museums, it features phones and related items dating from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop to today. Visitors can explore rotary dials, manual switchboards, working telecommunications equipment and tools of trade used by linemen at this interactive museum. Furthermore, an outstanding display of glass insulators pays homage to rural and small town Midwest communities outside Bell System exchanges served by independent phone companies that offered phones services outside Bell System exchanges through an impressive collection.
The Museum provides an active community outreach program through classroom outreach visits for schools and local organizations, featuring staff engaging with classroom teachers to craft engaging lessons using historical artifacts suitable for all age ranges of students. This service is offered free to schools. In addition, the Be Seen Yonkers Campaign distributes free reflective armbands to residents to keep walkers, joggers and runners safe on local roadways.
Volunteer Opportunities
Community outreach is essential to building healthy communities, from disseminating informational pamphlets about new health and safety regulations to designing interactive educational games and exhibits that educate children and visitors. Volunteers play an integral role in many forms of community outreach activities ranging from helping out at events or programs in person to cataloguing and preserving historical artifacts for future generations.
Are You Looking for Volunteer Opportunities? Visit Our Volunteer Opportunities Page Today and Find Something Fits. From home-based volunteering options to international trips, there’s sure to be something available!
The Telephone Historical Centre is one of North America’s premier telephone museums and serves to preserve telecommunication history through research, collecting, organizing, documenting, displaying and storing historical materials relating to local and worldwide developments in telecommunications. Established by former employees from ED TEL in December 1987 in Old Strathcona for temporary exhibition purposes only before moving permanently to Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre for permanent exhibit. This museum exhibits both technical and social significance through fully operational pieces exhibited as part of its multi-media Telecommunications Theatre show.
