The Telephone Historical Centre is an engaging museum featuring numerous exhibits. Visitors can explore communications technology through hands-on displays as well as its collection of working operator switchboards and military telephones.
The Museum boasts functional Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central-office switches, antique telephones, outside plant displays with poles, cables, splicing equipment, tools and much more.
The Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War
From the late 1800s on, historians have searched Gettysburg’s bloodstained battlefield for artifacts that illustrate its significance. Now, its museum houses one of the largest collections of Civil War relics in America.
The museum features two main attractions; A New Birth of Freedom narrated by Morgan Freeman and the 377 foot diameter and 42 foot high Cyclorama painting depicting Pickett’s Charge that took more than one year to create.
David Wills House is another must-see attraction and President Lincoln stayed here while writing the Gettysburg Address. This seven-gallery museum tells Wills’ story along with that of Gettysburg via exhibits and audio/visual presentations; visitors should allow at least an hour and a half for their visit to fully appreciate everything this place has to offer.
The Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum
Johannes and Schaper report that most visitors to their museum have been nostalgic older people as well as curious younger visitors.
This was one of the earliest military installations west of the Mississippi River, serving as a recruiting and outfitting depot and hub for western military expeditions. Its soldiers saw action in nearly every American conflict including Civil War. Furthermore, it also functioned as a hospital treating more injured soldiers than any other post.
The museum is housed in a former officers’ quarters that was constructed in 1896 and features exhibits organized chronologically with accompanying photographs and information panels. Highlights of the display include an early candlestick phone that operated by cranking cylinders for calls; an anachronistic leg-worn rotary dial telegraph used to send Morse code between fields; as well as an elaborate operator switchboard containing all its equipment – an undertaking of Telecom Pioneers, an organization comprised of retired Bell employees that worked tirelessly on their project.
The A&H’s Telephone Museum
A&H’s Telephone Museum takes visitors on an educational journey through communications technology and the history of telephones. Featuring working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches, antique telephones, switchboards, outside plant displays of poles and cables as well as splicing equipment and tools as well as an annotated cataloged telecommunications reference library – there is something here for every telephone enthusiast at A&H!
These exhibits tell the tale of how local resident Carl Galloway’s creation of Winter Park Telephone Company contributed to its rapid development and success, as well as detailing telephone technology throughout history, featuring numerous hands-on displays.
Group tours for 10 or more may be booked two weeks in advance and feature the Maitland Art Center, a contemporary art gallery; Maitland Historical Museum; and Telephone Museum on its main campus.
The Art & History Museums of Maitland are recognized as a National Historic Landmark and represent Greater Orlando’s only art and history museum. They house Maitland Art Center, Telephone Museum, Waterhouse Residence Museum & Carpentry Shop Museum as well as artist residencies.
The Connections Museum
The Telecom Pioneers, an organization of retired telephone and telecom employees who want to preserve old technology, operate this non-profit museum. Situated within an old CenturyLink (former Southwestern Bell and AT&T) central office building in Seattle, its exhibits include many exhibits dating back to 1920s and 1960s including operator switchboards; numerous pieces of telephone-related equipment; hundreds of historical telephones as well as poles, cables, splicing equipment and tools from outside plant displays.
One of the main attractions at the museum are its working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central-office switches, said Sarah Autumn, one of its volunteer phone workers at the museum. These “magic machines” can only be found at two other remaining No 5 crossbar offices (one is at The Telephone Museum in Ellsworth, Maine) but still allow calls between switches through an emulated telephone number using computer programs which constantly simulate calls between switches, keeping their equipment exercising itself.
