The museum’s collection represents the many ways people use phones today and honors those who erect poles, bury cables and build and maintain telephone networks over generations.
Students, researchers and general visitors can gain an in-depth view of Edmonton’s telephone history through an impressive collection of vintage directories; technical manuals; and other books of interest.
Collections
This museum pays homage to those who worked tirelessly to establish Edmonton’s telephone network over decades past, honoring their legacy with artifacts, photographs and documents that shed light on those early years of telecom in Edmonton and Alberta.
The collection contains historic documents such as early manual system telephones, as well as artifacts that show how telephony has evolved through time. These include its role in society and business activities as well as its impact on culture and way of life.
The archive features oral histories with former Telecom Industry employees that offer an in-depth account of its development in British Columbia. Furthermore, unique materials including an original comic book produced by District Telephone Company of New Haven Connecticut in 1878 as part of their world first commercial telephone company — donated to Archives Center by these records in 1998 – offer further insights.
Exhibits
An array of exhibits showcases the history and development of telecommunications over the last century. These displays appeal to retirees who appreciate antique telecom equipment as well as young people eager to gain more insight into this field of technology. It features full-scale mannequins and historic buildings; furthermore it highlights their role during disaster.
For instance, the museum hosts an entire room dedicated to the development of the first undersea transatlantic telegraph cable and its subsequent evolution. There’s also an impressive collection of old telephone directories and research documents here; working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office switching systems as well as outdoor plant displays featuring poles, cables and splicing gear can all be found here too!
As well as its diverse collection of artifacts, the museum boasts an impressive library of archival materials. The archives hold vintage telephone directories and technical manuals dating back to the 1800s; additionally they serve as home for oral histories from former telecom employees.
Education programs
Edmonton Alberta is home to one of North America’s premier telecommunications museums, serving as a research, documentation, exhibition and storage center for telecommunications artifacts. Their collection showcases everything from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop through modern mobile phones; as well as working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office switch equipment such as operator switchboards as well as outside plant displays of poles wire and insulators for visitors interested in taking guided sight-seeing tours or family outings.
The museum engages former telecom workers by inviting them to share memorabilia from their garages and sheds for its extensive collection. This approach teaches children and adults alike about iterative design processes that have produced our interdependent world while simultaneously encouraging entrepreneurial spirit to produce future technological breakthroughs.
Volunteers play a critical role in supporting museum education programs. They lead tours, run youth activity tables and catalog memorabilia (some even with formal artifact handling or library/archives experience). Furthermore, volunteers serve as ambassadors in public spaces greeting groups as they circulate or answering inquiries about exhibitions or programs.
Special events
Roseville Museum provides an engaging and educational family outing, school field trip or group sight-seeing tour experience, offering visitors rotary dial phones and switchboards, original hand crank wall phones as well as two Kellogg universal switchboards that enable visitors to connect calls manually before automated exchanges took over this task. Furthermore, this museum displays line insulators and novelty phones.
From Alexander Graham Bell’s accidental invention of the telephone to modern day multifunctional mobile devices, this museum provides an interesting look into its evolution over time. Filings for patents and engineering notes to old Edmonton directories – it has an expansive collection of communications history here!
Established by former employees of ED TEL, this museum is Canada’s sole facility dedicated to telecom history. Among its attractions are an electromechanical central office switch with working panel and crossbar electromechancial central office switch as well as outdoor plant displays with poles, wire and splicing equipment and an extensive cataloged reference library of telecom literature. Furthermore, there is also a vast collection of antique telephones including two rotary dial “box” phones commonly found in homes as well as one that reported President William McKinley’s assassination in 1893.
