OUR MISSION
is to demonstrate the social and technical significance of the telephone network
from 1876 to the present, using working equipment to provide tangible,
operable evidence of an evolving technology.
WE CELEBRATE
the inventiveness, craftsmanship, ingenuity and industry
of the telecommunications community through educational programs,
exhibits, and special events.
"It's for YOU"
A big gray barn on a country road in Maine houses an unusual display of communications technology. At The Telephone Museum, the history of the telephone network from Alexander Graham Bell's patent in 1876, through the era of switchboard operators and early dial telephones, to the more complex electro-mechanical switching systems that preceeded digital technology, is represented in hands-on exhibits intended to show the ingenuity and craftsmanship of thousands of telephone workers, innovators and entrepreneurs over more than 100 years.
Founded in 1983, as the breakup of the Bell System was occuring, The Telephone Museum was created in reaction to the loss of an unusual switching system known as "Panel". After efforts by the founders to interest older, more established museums to save the switch failed, the Panel system was sent to the scrap yard.
In a very short time after its creation, the museum was able to save several large and important switching systems that had served towns in New England, primarily in Maine. These include a #5 Crossbar from Belfast, Maine; a #3 Crossbar from Bradford, Maine and the entire central office of The Island Telephone Company which served the community of Frenchboro, Maine.
The collections were acquired through the generosity of New England Telephone and its successors, and through Independent Telephone Companies in New England, as well as from many individuals who have donated everything from telephone sets to early photos of telephone workers, to crucial documents relating to the operation of the museum's switching systems. The Telephone Museum is operated by a non-profit corporation known as The New England Museum of Telephony, Inc.
Through an arrangement with one of the museum's directors, the collections, previously sheltered throughout New England and elsewhere came to rest at 166 Winkumpaugh Road in Ellsworth, Maine in 1996. The rural location provides ample room for expansion and allows the visitor to enjoy the Maine countryside while learning about the history of one of the most vital industries in the United States: telecommunications.
Ring us up! Use a hand-crank (magneto) phone and learn how a switchboard operator connects calls. Find out how and why the dial phone was introduced. See and hear the wonderful noise of electro-mechanical telephone switching systems.