The Museum boasts one of the largest collections of antique telephones and related telecommunications equipment in North America, from Alexander Graham Bell’s Gallows Frame Telephone and Thomas Watson’s Thumper Phone to modern day videophones – this collection offers a fascinating glimpse into communication history.
From candlestick wall phones and early switchboards to rare phone booths, the museum has something for every interest and age group.
Original Telephones
Over time, telephone technology has seen considerable advancements from mechanical string phones to modern smartphones. This collection features early telephone models from the Bell System era of over one century ago.
Early telephones provided separate transmitter and receiver functions, requiring users to hold up a receiver while speaking into it. Later designs incorporated both functions into one unit such as this Western Electric “candlestick” phone which features a rotary dial.
The museum also showcases a working Central Office step switch and operator switchboard that demonstrate how incoming calls were manually connected before automated switching was introduced. Furthermore, there’s also a two position Kellogg Universal switchboard from 1940 as well as numerous candlestick wall phones from this period – plus children’s technology displays as well as opportunities for Boy Scouts to complete their Inventing and Engineering merit badge requirements.
Replicas
The museum housed numerous replica telephones from Alexander Graham Bell’s gallows frame to Thomas Watson’s Thumper phone to rotary and candlestick wall phones; all providing a window into its history and impactful development over time.
Established by retired employees of ED TEL in 1987, the Telephone Historical Centre is one of North America’s premier telephone and telecommunications museums. Boasting an impressive collection of antique telephone equipment and items spanning everything from an interactive Private Automatic Branch Exchange display to plant displays featuring poles, cables, splicing tools, and antique line insulators, the Telephone Historical Centre showcases America’s telecom past with pride.
In addition to an impressive collection of original artifacts, the Telephone Historical Centre boasts an expansive research archive. This repository houses microfilm copies of early directories, binders and scrapbooks as well as documents related to Edmonton’s telephone history as well as photographs depicting independent telephone services’ growth here.
Exhibits
The Telephone Historical Centre was one of North America’s premier museums dedicated to telecom innovation and history, featuring original equipment such as Alexander Graham Bell’s Gallows Frame Phone or Thomas Watson’s Thumper Phone, among many other examples. Furthermore, an impressive replica collection enabled visitors to physically interact with and experience all aspects of telephone history and innovation first hand.
Exhibits often display diagrams depicting intricate wire networks that once traversed the continent, providing a vivid reminder of the enormous engineering challenges early telegraph and telephone companies had to overcome. Telephone museums feature working models of central office step switches and operator switchboards to make complex telecommunications technologies tangible for visitors. From antique wooden box phones and candlestick wall phones, to classic pay phones from the 1960s and novel Picturephones of that decade, various telephones provide insight into how design, materials science and cultural preferences shape telecom innovations. Many exhibits also highlight how rural telephone services provided essential lifelines for families, doctors and neighbors, uniting communities together.
Research Archive
The Museum’s extensive collection of antique telecommunication equipment and items, from Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone to videophones, provides visitors with a fascinating window into the history of communication. Ranging from wooden box phones and candlestick wall phones, as well as rotary phones to two position Kellogg universal switchboards – visitors can witness how technology has advanced over the years.
Some collections in this archive carry copyright or donor restrictions that shed light on the conditions that contribute to media text production and illuminate how cultures emerge over time.
Color slides, negatives, and photographic prints from Stan Wayman’s career as a photojournalist at Miami Herald and Life magazine can be found in his research archive. He documented Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon; politicians Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie; Russia; animals as well as biographical files, newspaper clippings, reporter’s binders and scrapbooks that offer insight into innovation diffusion processes. Detailed georeferencing allows researchers to use his directory effectively as part of their investigation of innovation diffusion.
