At North American Telecom Museum we offer an enjoyable experience through one of the largest collections of telephone artifacts ever assembled in North America, from Alexander Graham Bell’s basic box-shaped telephone to today’s pocket-sized cell phones. Additionally, there are working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches, outside plant displays of poles cables splicing equipment tools as well as an extensive telecommunications reference library available here.
Visit Our Museum
Visit the Museum of the Telephone Historical Centre and gain an in-depth sense of history and technology! It features an outstanding collection of artifacts – including working switching equipment – which provide a glimpse into its past.
The museum was established by former employees of independent telephone companies who wanted to preserve their legacy. Over time, their collection has grown into a well-regarded repository for telecom history, housing thousands of items that showcase communications technology’s development over time.
The 4,500-square foot museum showcases 100 years of communications technology through one of the finest collections of antique telephones and equipment available today. Displayed are wooden wall-mounted phones as well as novelty phones that will offer visitors of all ages an entertaining and educational experience.
Visitors will discover a working panel and crossbar electromechanical central office switch, original phone booths, Princess phones, displays of linemen’s tools such as pole climbing stirrups; an outside plant display featuring poles, cables, splicing equipment as well as much more – making this museum the ideal spot for family outings, school field trips or group sightseeing tours!
Participate in a Telephone Workshop
The Telephone Historical Centre was founded on December 3rd 1987 to collect, research, organize, document, exhibit and store materials relating to telecom history. Operating as a non-profit all volunteer charitable organization.
Proponents of the telephone saw it as providing both profit and comfort; opening up rural communities by connecting to centers of culture, commerce and power; sometimes even acting as an instrument of divine service. Such disparate depictions demonstrate that telephony’s meaning was often debated; something often missed in descriptions of new media. Our Telephone Workshops give kids and adolescents an immersive, hands-on way to learn electricity and engineering through America’s remarkable phone history in an engaging, safe, empowering setting. Workshops encourage participant curiosity and self-motivation while developing knowledge of electric theory and engineering. A multi-year longitudinal evaluation measures changes in participants’ engineering interest, history and mathematics knowledge as well as self-efficacy levels over time.
Attend a Special Event
Preservation of phone models, prototypes and artifacts allows people to observe the technological development that produced today’s intricate communication system. This is particularly meaningful for children who can witness technology’s growth through hands-on experimentation with old fashioned phones in our Telephone Workshops.
The museum features working switching equipment in its vintage Central Office Step Switch as well as operator switchboards, crank wall phones and hundreds of pieces of telephone-related equipment and memorabilia. There is also an impressive reference library as well as outdoor plant displays featuring poles, wire and splicing equipment.
Established in 1987, this museum is housed in an old phone company building on the grounds of Jefferson Barracks park. As an independent telephone museum managed by volunteers from former and current local phone companies, this collection boasts one of the nation’s largest collections of telecommunications history – featuring an impressive array of telephone insulators. Open to self-guided tours from members of the public.
Volunteer
Volunteers assist the museum in opening and greeting visitors during tours/event days, and also offer wayfinding assistance in Historic Richmond Town. This position is perfect for retired teachers as well as others looking to continue working with children.
Telephone Historical Centre is a non-profit, volunteer-operated museum of historic telecommunications equipment that illustrates tangible history through hands-on exhibits. As Canada’s sole museum of its kind, it showcases wooden wall-mount and rotary dial phones; antique manual, candlestick and novelty phones as well as switchboards – as well as its world renowned working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office exchange; an operating Step-by-Step private automatic branch exchange which showcases its stepping switch principle; line insulators as well as outdoor plant displays of poles cables and splicing equipment splicing equipments!
Museum volunteers assist staff with cleaning, cataloguing and researching the Society’s artifact collection. In the Genealogical Library volunteers assist researchers uncover their family roots using documents in the Society’s extensive document library. As a vital community resource, museums rely heavily on volunteer support.
