This museum, operated as a non-profit society, showcases creativity, craftsmanship, and ingenuity through telecommunication equipment from wooden wall-mounted telephones to modern smartphones – providing visitors with an opportunity to witness communication innovation first-hand.
This study’s primary objectives were to collect an array of registry participant information during the Covid-19 pandemic and provide HBEC staff with resource lists tailored specifically for individual participant needs.
Hands-On Exhibits
The museum boasts an impressive collection of telephones, equipment and ephemera from late-1800s Alexander Graham Bell to modern pocket touch-screen smartphones. Additionally, there is a working panel and step switch, an electromechanical central office switch as well as outdoor displays featuring poles cables and splicing equipment – each exhibit chronicling telecom history from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop through today’s smartphone pocket touch screens.
Exhibits at the museum are designed for interactive exploration, but if you prefer guided experiences, museum volunteers can give tours that last at least an hour for groups or individuals.
Visitors to Todd’s store can experiment with various phones, from rotary and art deco Mickey Mouse phones to rotary phones from years gone by. Visitors of all ages are fascinated by these old phones; Todd was especially amazed to see an 11-year-old girl dial a rotary phone repeatedly while sitting down next to it! Todd believes it provides children with an opportunity to learn about communication technology’s history as it has advanced over time.
Educational Workshops
The museum exhibits of telecommunications equipment showcase creativity and craftsmanship that contributed to modern connectivity. Ranging from solid wooden wall-mounted phones to sleek mobile devices, these exhibits show how our technology has advanced over time.
Established by retired telecom professionals, this museum in Edmonton gives visitors an engaging glimpse of local independent phone companies’ histories. Their collection features a working panel-and-crossbar electromechanical central office type switching system as well as plant displays with pole cables splicing tools. Furthermore, an authentic reconstructed private automatic branch exchange exhibit to demonstrate manual line switching is also on display at their facility.
The museum provides educational workshops that meet school curriculum requirements. A telephone workshop introduces electrical theory by comparing modern day semiconductor architecture with historical artifacts; this inspiring opportunity fosters children and young adults’ curiosity that led to telecommunications’ inception; today it drives inventors and innovators. Furthermore, through their Phone Buddy program older community members are called regularly in order to check-in and converse over the phone with them.
Traveling Trunks
The Telephone Historical Centre is a non-profit society dedicated to collecting, researching, archiving and displaying artifacts related to the history of telecom. Their museums offer experiences that inspire curiosity, innovation and culture through technology and storytelling – from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall-mounted phones with operator direction through today’s multifunctional smartphones. Their Traveling Trunks program extends the museum collection directly into schools and community organizations while being overseen by professional museum educators for an engaging learning experience.
Special Events
Telecommunications museums serve as centers for acquisition, research, organization, documentation, exhibition and storage of historical telecommunications materials. Their collections spark curiosity about technology, innovation and culture – from Alexander Graham Bell’s solid wood wall-mounted operator-directed phones to modern multifunctional smartphones that span generations and cultures.
The Telephone Historical Centre, founded by retired ED TEL employees in 1987 and located at Edmonton’s Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Complex is North America’s largest telephone museum. Visitors of all ages will enjoy exploring this exciting museum experience!
The Museum of Telecommunications Artifacts & Exhibits contains an expansive collection of antique telephone artifacts and exhibits, such as working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central-office switches and outside plant displays of poles, cables, splicing equipment and tools from its outside plant displays, working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches as well as outside plant displays of poles cables splicing equipment and tools from outside plants as well as poles cables splicing equipment splicing tools and tools from outside plants displays as well as an expansive cataloged Telecommunications Reference Library. Educational workshops that correspond with school curriculum requirements as well as community educational programs via Traveling Trunk program which takes telephone memorabilia directly into schools and communities for educational programs directly at their doorstep.
