Our museum boasts an extraordinary collection of telephones and related telecommunications equipment, from Alexander Graham Bell’s workshop to a working step-by-step private automatic branch exchange that illustrates the stepping switch principle, along with exquisite glass insulators collections.
From rotary phones to modern cell phones, visitors discover the history of this fascinating technology. Phones were associated with profit and pleasure as well as progress and even divine service!
Volunteer Opportunities
The Telephone Historical Centre was founded in 1987 in Edmonton Alberta as an acquisition, research, organization, documentation, exhibition, and storage center dedicated to telecom history materials. Housed at Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre it offers hands on exhibits that illustrate communication principles as well as hosting the Telecommunications Theatre Show – ideal for connecting science, history, and art together! Volunteer opportunities range from tours and youth activity tables to cataloguing artifacts (some volunteer have formal artifact handling/library/archives experience!).
USO Port Authority/Times Square Center Volunteer – Assist military members and their families as they deploy or wait for loved ones to come home, with shifts available throughout the day.
Exhibits
The museum features an impressive collection of telephone equipment and memorabilia. Many artifacts were put on display thanks to volunteer efforts who reached out to former telephone workers asking them about their equipment. As a result, garage and shed belongings came pouring in, many being brought directly to the museum for display.
The System Room exhibit offers an interactive timeline of telephone innovations with full-scale mannequin displays of working crossbar switchboards. Other exhibits demonstrate technology from solid wood operator directed wall phones to cell phones – perfect for showing kids how far phones have come since their invention! These displays serve as an engaging way to introduce children to this milestone in communication history.
The museum also offers its Telephone Workshops program, which fosters enthusiasm for engineering by using electric theory and mathematics to compare modern semiconductor architecture with historic artifacts from America’s fascinating telecom history. Participants use screw drivers and hands-on activities to explore this invisible world using physical and mathematical analogies.
Telecommunications Theatre Show
The Museum boasts one of the world’s largest collections of telephones and telecommunication equipment from Alexander Graham Bell’s first box-shaped prototype to modern touch screen cellular phones, working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches, outside plant displays of poles cables splicing equipment as well as a catalogued library dedicated to telecom.
Proponents of telecommunication in the late 1800’s associated its invention with profit, comfort and pleasure; rural people could access centers of culture, commerce and power via potential connections provided by telephone lines; however it also challenged traditional beliefs and norms, leading to many diverse meanings associated with telephone use such as “divine service” or even a sinful network.
Our Telephone Workshops aim to foster enthusiasm for engineering by taking advantage of America’s long and rich telephone history as an activity which emphasizes electric theory and hands-on experience with old and new telephones. Each workshop also includes formative evaluation which collects baseline data regarding participants’ STEM experiences, knowledge, understanding and appreciation of telecommunications history and technology.
Education Programs
Explore the Museum’s collection with hands-on workshops designed to foster young engineers. Leveraging America’s rich telephone history, participants will learn fundamentals of electricity and telecom principles from vintage technology while exploring modern day semiconductor architecture in relation to vintage devices – tapping into that same curiosity that gave rise to telephones but continues to fuel engineers today.
The Telephone Historical Centre is an acquisition, research, organization, documentation, exhibition and storage center dedicated to telecom history materials. Their mission is to connect science, history and art through exhibits and facilities for people of all ages.
THG operates two museums, an extensive telecommunications archive and educational outreach program. As part of this initiative, they conduct an innovative phone call project whereby they contact home care patients directly to refer them for services as needed; data on this initiative are then analyzed and reported on annually; all information regarding patients remains de-identified to protect privacy.
