WELLINGTON COUNTY – Organizers at the Wellington County Museum and Archives are inviting the public to an exhibit about the history of the home telephone.
A Sept. 29 event titled “Life on the Line: Evolution of the Home phone,” was part of an online lecture series in connection with the museum’s telephone exhibit, “Talk to Me!,” which focuses on the evolution of the home telephone.
“This presentation, by guest lecturer Brian Wood (curator of the Bell Homestead National Historic Site), took a nostalgic look back at this indispensable instruments of communication and how it has evolved over the years through an entertaining presentation featuring classic vintage Bell Telephone ads,” said curatorial assistant Amy Dunlop in an email to the Advertiser.
“The telephone is one of the most important communication devices ever invented. It expanded how people communicated and saw the world, providing instantaneous real-time interactions between people anywhere.”
The presentation offered “a chance to reminisce, admire, and laugh at 75 years of marketing – everything from the convenience of an extension phone in 1909, telephone etiquette in wartime, telephones to match your décor in the 1960s, and modern styles of the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Wood added.
As part of the exhibit, a replica of Alexander Graham Bell’s Box Telephone used in Canada in 1877 to an original 1891 Blake transmitter magneto telephone will be on display.
These were the first type of telephones installed in Wellington County in 1886, Dunlop noted.
The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 9.
For more information visit the website at https://www.wellington.ca/en/discover/mus-talk-to-me.aspx.
Wellington County Museum and Archives is located on Wellington Road 18, between Elora and Fergus.
The site is open Monday to Friday 9:30am to 4:30pm and the weekends 1 to 5pm. Admission is by donation. Proof of vaccination and masks are required.
