The Collections is an engaging place where one can commemorate and explore the future of communications technology. A visit is perfect for family outings, school field trips or group tours.
The Museum offers an impressive collection of antique telephones and telecom equipment. Many phones ring, dial and are fully operational.
The Bell Collection
The Bell Collection houses over 10 terabytes of information on over 16,000 species from both Minnesota and around the globe, enabling visitors to explore zebras, algae, and more via state-of-the-art digital resources.
Myrtle Eldridge left traces of herself throughout The Belfry as reminders of her dedication. There’s the framed Guinness World Record certificate hanging alongside her name in one of the bell rooms; and more subtle clues, like keeping detailed notes documenting where, when, and from whom each bell was acquired as well as keeping typed transcripts of many handwritten correspondence she conducted over many years.
As soon as Richard Barthelemy became public education coordinator for the museum in 1966, he introduced an immersive learning experience for children that continues today. He would put items from their collections–bones, feathers and other artifacts–on carts or directly on carpet for visitors to examine and handle; it quickly became a hit and is still offered during museum visits today. Furthermore, they offer books related to anthropology.
The Kellogg Universal Switchboard
The collection offers an exquisite assortment of antique telephones and telecom equipment. On display are numerous rotary dial phones, manual switchboards including the last step-by-step private automatic branch exchange demonstrating step switch principles, candlestick wall telephones made of wood or candle wax as well as wooden telephones with line insulators attached.
Milo Gifford Kellogg was an important pioneer of early telephony. He created large switchboards which allowed operators to collaborate while making calls with different ring frequencies (similar to Morse code rings) using different switchboard lines. Furthermore, his company produced standard WE-pattern desk and wall phones until ITT acquired their operations and renamed it ITT Kellogg Telephone in 1951.
The museum pays a fitting homage to generations of men and women who made possible the Bell network; from erecting poles, burying cables, designing technology systems that make it all work to designing exhibitions that make learning fun for all ages. The exhibit is interactive and entertaining all at the same time!
The Red Telephone Kiosk Collection
Through much of the 20th century, cities and towns across Britain had distinctive red telephone booths designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott called K1 kiosks that became national symbols for the General Post Office (GPO). When GPO started replacing kiosks with modern payphones in 1986, local campaigners including Thirties Society members and London Boroughs used legislation designed to protect buildings of architectural or historic importance to prevent their sale-off and give listed status to old kiosks that had been sold off to GPO.
British citizens treasure these kiosks and continue to use them in various ways; for example, Eastbourne Pier’s beachfront kiosk has been transformed into a coffee bar complete with hot dog and ice cream machines! Others have been converted into community defibrillator stations thanks to BT and Community Heartbeat partnerships, or have even taken on new roles such as being turned into replicas of Doctor Who’s iconic blue Police Box!
The Tanner Collection
Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first African-American painter to achieve international renown. Born in Pittsburgh to a bishop father and an escaped slave mother who had made their escape on the Underground Railroad, Tanner held strong beliefs in both religion and racial equality within his family and in his art; The Raising of Lazarus clearly illustrates this aspect. Tanner’s pictorial constructions transcended clear racial definition; its multiple complexions and physiognomies reflect his visionary paintings that defied American racial ideology.
Tanner studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before departing for Paris after realizing he could no longer fight racism while becoming an artist simultaneously in America. While in France, Tanner became acquainted with French modernism and old master techniques.
Holburne Museum’s Tanner Collection includes paintings, sketches and other works on paper by Tanner himself. Series I contains his correspondence with Tchelitchew while series III contains photographs taken of Tchelitchew in New York and Paris during the 1920’s.
