The Telephone Museum

An interactive museum on the history of the telephone

Is the wired telephone network a thing of the past? Not here! In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for “improvements in telegraphy.” The device described in that patent changed the world. It became known as the telephone – and the history of that device, the other inventions it spawned, the businesses it created, the people who worked to construct, maintain, and improve the network of telephone wires that spanned the country are subjects that The Telephone Museum invites you to explore. Real, working telephones and the switchboards and switching systems that powered the network are featured at this hands-on, interactive museum. You are encouraged to use wall-mounted, hand-crank magneto phones, dial phones, and manual switchboards. And you will see, hear and enjoy the electro-mechanical marvels that led the way to computers, cell phones, smart phones and other wonders of telecommunications.