The Telephone Historical Centre provides an engaging glimpse of communication technology’s development over time. Exhibits at this interactive museum include working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office step switches and operator switchboards; antique phones; wooden wall phones; crank-up desk phones; candlestick phone insulators; outside plant displays with poles cables splicing equipment tools, candlestick phone insulators and one of North America’s largest reference libraries.
Free parking
The Telephone Historical Centre is an engaging museum that showcases the impact of technology on society. With an expansive collection of antique phones, from wooden wall mount hand cranking mechanisms to sleek cell smartphones, showing their impactful use, this center highlights how intelligent ideas and innovative creations transform our world. In addition, one of North America’s largest telecommunications reference libraries resides here staffed by current and retired Bell System employees who help make up its staff.
Established in 1987, this groundbreaking facility is Canada’s only of its kind and boasts working operator switchboards; outdoor plant displays with poles, wires and splicing equipment; as well as an extensive cataloged reference library. Group and individual tours are also offered.
This museum stands out from traditional ones because you are allowed to engage with its exhibits directly. It boasts an interactive collection that includes manual cord boards, step-by-step private automatic branch exchanges demonstrating stepping switch principles, antique wooden box phones and candlestick wall phones; plus working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches along with an impressive assortment of glass line insulators.
Self-guided tours
The Telephone Historical Centre was founded by retired employees from Edmonton-Dominion TEL (ED TEL). As an educational institution dedicated to communications technology preservation and interaction for visitors, this museum collects, organizes, documents, exhibits and exhibits artifacts related to Edmonton’s history of telecom. Furthermore, visitors can experience multi-media historical Telecommunication Theatre Show experiences while at this facility.
This museum is one of the largest in North America and features working operator switchboards, candlestick wall phones and antique line insulators as well as antique line insulators from different eras. Additionally, there is a working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switch, outdoor plant displays featuring poles cables splicing equipment tools as well as an extensive catalogued reference library available for researchers.
The museum encourages its visitors to experience antique phone equipment by offering both guided and unguided tours, with more immersive tours using the NPS Audio Tour app that features narratives about its history. Simply dial one of the OnCell numbers displayed on stop signs and enter your code provided by NPS to start listening!
Tours with docents
The museum is dedicated to collecting, studying, organizing and exhibiting historical telephone-related items. Its vast collection captures an era of great technological change and advancement within telecommunications; exhibits range from solid wood wall-mounted devices with operator controls all the way down to cell phones that fit neatly into pockets.
The museum provides both group and individual tours, led by knowledgeable docents. Visitors are given an intimate experience among its artifacts – trying out crank phones or using manual switchboards – that demonstrate how these advances have contributed to shaping our modern world.
Docents are volunteer tour guides who bring art and history alive for museum visitors. Highly-trained and passionate about their subject matter, docents lead tours in both galleries and the Edward Hopper House. Training involves informational meetings before students accompany an experienced docent on tours. In addition, the museum offers various outreach programs like Traveling Trunks which bring artifacts directly to schools and communities.
Exhibits
This remarkable museum explores the history of telecommunications through an expansive collection of antique phones dating from Alexander Graham Bell’s original gallows frame telephone up through modern iPhones. There are working operator switchboards, outside plant displays with poles and lines, an extensive catalogued reference library as well as group and individual sightseeing tours as well as educational outreach through Traveling Trunks program.
Exhibits at the museum include candlestick phones, wooden wall mount phones and rotary dial phones – each offering insight into the men and women who developed early communications networks by erecting poles or digging cables to change our world today.
Established by retired ED TEL employees, this innovative museum is Canada’s only facility of its kind. Boasting working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office step switches as well as an expansive collection of glass line insulators and an exhaustive catalogued reference library, The Telephone Historical Centre truly is a one-of-a-kind experience!
