The Telephone Historical Centre Collections showcase a variety of antique phones, switchboards and related telecommunication equipment. Colorful painted backdrops adorn equipment displays like two switchboards (including one featuring an eccentric scene from Plains), the last Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange system and panel systems.
Subject Files contain letters and diaries written by Alexander Graham Bell that cover various subjects, such as his scientific research, aviation and deaf education.
The History of the Telephone
The telephone has long been one of the world’s most iconic pieces of technology. It paved the way for convenient communication across great distances – even across countries!
Not always easy to determine the inventor of an invention, the telephone was no different. In fact, it took years before it became clear that Alexander Graham Bell invented it.
Gray and Bell filed separate patent applications on February 14, 1876; however, due to an oversight on behalf of their lawyers, due to heavy patent office congestion Bell’s application was registered first.
Gray was instrumental in developing the telephone, while Bell may have come up with the microphone idea. Our collection contains items from telecom history such as rotary dial phones and manual switchboards – and future plans call for an exhibit devoted to switchboards in a dedicated building! These goals can only be accomplished with your help!
The Bell Collection
The museum houses an abundance of telephone-related objects spanning the history of telecommunications. Key highlights include an operator switchboard, step-by-step private automatic branch exchange system and mobile phone exhibit that displays how this technology has advanced from 1980s car phones to modern cellular phones.
George Tanner began collecting Knox County telephone communications equipment and artifacts early in his career at Mount Vernon Telephone Company. His collection of photographs, memories and equipment tells the tale of over one century of telephone communications in this region.
The Telephone Historical Centre’s collection also boasts an eclectic range of antique telephones and telecom technology dating back to 1920, such as phone kiosks that have long defined Britain. One of its specialities is BT KX100 Plus Internet Kiosks which make for fascinating viewing as well as opportunities for interactive playback by visitors; such an approach makes the Telephone Historical Centre truly different than any other museum experience.
The Telephone Experience
This collection presents an assortment of antique telephones and related telecommunications technology from Edmonton’s telephone history as it evolved from manual switching to automatic switching. Artifacts and replicas in this display showcase its significance.
The museum features an interactive Kellogg universal switchboard – an engaging visitor exhibit enabling guests to connect telephone circuits using toggle switches – using cord pairs and lamp pairs, similar to what was used until automated systems became popular in the 1920s.
This collection includes several of Britain’s iconic red telephone kiosks – a feature of British roadsides since their first standard design was unveiled in 1920. These iconic icons of our cultural heritage remain an integral part of local communities today with many being regularly in use by regular users.
The Archive
The Museum features an expansive collection of telephones, equipment and other telecommunications technology ranging from early manual system phones that first arrived in Edmonton back in 1885 to more contemporary automatic switching telephones – something to please every telecommunications enthusiast!
This collection of Canadian telecom history is one of the largest. It documents the development of phone technologies from their early manufacturing stages to current research laboratories.
This collection is truly fascinating and unique; almost a museum within a museum! There are endless lit glass racks containing candlestick phones, box phones and rotary dial phones; the McKinley phone (1897), used to report President William McKinley’s assassination; Hush-a-phones used for private conversations (Hushu-a-phone); as well as an actual manual switchboard that operators would once use in telephone exchanges – it even works!
