This collection spans nearly 14 decades of advances in telecommunications. It includes early local telephone directories (which listed people’s professions, spouses’ names and whether or not they rented or owned their homes), tools used by linemen and tokens.
This collection also houses documents, catalogues, and equipment that trace telephone manufacturing from its initial factory in Brantford in 1878 to Bell-Northern Research and Development Laboratories of today.
Manual Telephones
Guernsey’s collection traces the development of communications from 1858, when electric telegraphy communications first started, through to 1908 when States Telephone Department was introduced. Artefacts in this collection include manual telephone switchboards, step-by-step private automatic branch exchange and phone booth.
At first, telephone customers would call central office operators for operator assistance for calls between manual or automatic exchanges in large cities. Once dialing, an operator at the destination exchange would see it displayed on an indicator and connect it by plugging a cord attached to their switchboard into an appropriate jack on that cord.
Hello Montreal! is a new exhibition that pays homage to generations of workers who erected poles, buried cables, designed and managed technology systems, installed telephones in homes, businesses and offices as well as used audiovisual displays, background projections, songs about specific telephone models as well as oversize models to provide visitors of all ages an entertaining and educational experience.
Telephone Directories
Telephone directories, also referred to by different names (white pages, yellow pages or classified directory) in various countries, contain listings of telephone subscribers identified by name, address and phone number. They also contain useful information regarding new lines opening or Bell local managers as well as telephone rates.
This collection of city telephone directories from various locations contains lists of people’s professions (which may help identify family members), maps and advertisements. Some directories also contain information regarding civil defense/emergency management services, utilities, hospitals/doctor offices/other businesses that could prove invaluable in an emergency.
The collection also houses manuals for telephone equipment, working examples of automatic exchange switchboards from different periods, as well as telephone kiosks such as K3 and electrophone kiosks that give an insight into the technological development of telecom and how the phone has supported government, business and personal communication over time. They are available for researchers to use.
Telephone Booths
This interactive exhibition honors generations of men and women who created our modern telephone network. Travel back in time with us as we show rotary dial phones, wall-mounted magneto phones, manual switchboards and much more from days past!
A telephone booth, commonly referred to as a public phone box or call box, is a small structure fitted with payphones for public use. They typically include privacy doors for added protection as well as windows so passersby can see whether it is currently active. They typically also contain printed directories of local telephone numbers.
The Collection’s Series VIII: Memorabilia (1904-1990s) consists of artifactual material such as equipment, employee awards and commemorative materials as well as posters, scrapbooks and framed artwork. This series provides a record of telephone history from an archive perspective; it’s broken up into three subseries: Clippings contains newspaper articles in scrapbook form while Material Produced by SNET provides pamphlets, booklets and guides to service.
Telephone Artifacts
The Collections offer visitors of all ages an exciting opportunity to learn about and appreciate the electromechanical wonders that allowed telecommunications networks to grow and flourish. Ranging from rotary dial phones and wall-mounted magnetos, to hand-crank switchboards and cell phones – to today’s smart phone technology – our telephone artifact collection provides a fascinating window into its development.
Staffers pushing a rolling cart at the Collections facility in Suitland, Maryland quietly moved one of the museum’s greatest treasures – an ancient communication artifact known as an early Western Hemisphere telephone – into its high ceilinged space for safekeeping. It’s truly astounding what humans were capable of creating during ancient civilizations!
The Connecticut Telephone Company Archives Collections began with a decision by company officers to keep all equipment they owned for future reference. Now there are also records and files related to early and most successful Connecticut phone companies, exchange history/fact files, personal memories/building information files as well as many other related topics.
