In the cell phone era, it’s difficult to imagine how revolutionary telephone technology was in the late 19th century. Landline telephones convert a caller’s voice into electrical signals that travel through wires to another telephone, which then converts the signals back into sound waves. Early phones ranged from large wooden wall models to candlestick desk sets. The rotary dial telephone, which allowed users to make calls without the aid of an operator, became a fixture in American homes by the 1930s. 

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This short-term exhibit features classic telephones on loan from local collector Kenton Newman, with a few additions from our own collection including a variety of rotary and touchtone models, specialty and work phones, novelty phones and early cell phones. 

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