The Connections Museum Seattle has a large variety of historic and modern telephones on display. See below for more information about our Seattle exhibits.
Telephones
The Connections Museum Seattle - Telephones
Telephone sets are the devices that subscribers did not originally own but were instead leased from the phone company. The museum has many representative models, from a copy of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone to videophones.
Earliest Telephones
The museum has an exact replica of the telephone that spoke the words, “Mr. Watson, come here! I need you!” by Alexander Graham Bell, March 10, 1876. These are the first words that were ever spoken by telephone. Additionally, there are many other telephones from the past to the present.
Wall Phones
The museum has a large collection of early wall phones. Wall phones were popular in the early days since telephones were so big and heavy that they were immovable. Many of the phones on display ring, dial and are completely functional.
British Post Office Call Box Model K-6
The classic red Model K-6 British Post Office telephone box was first introduced in England in 1936. The story behind THG’s example is fascinating. A Seattle museum volunteer who was also a radio amateur (or “Ham”) spoke to another amateur in England by shortwave and asked for help in finding a red call box to display. Through much effort a small group of dedicated radio amateurs in England obtained a recently retired K-6 box from Norwich and it was delivered to one of their houses by British Telecom.
Wanting to move the phone kiosk out of his garden, the gentleman then contacted several organizations to ask for assistance. As a final measure he sent a letter to John Major, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and to his delight received a positive response. The Royal Air Force of the UK offered to transport the booth to the East Midlands airport near Derby, where some room was found to load it on an Antonov AN-124 cargo plane that was carrying Rolls Royce jet engines to Boeing in Seattle.
After the cargo plane landed at Boeing Field, Boeing trucked the call box to our nearby museum and USWest offered the use of a boom truck to hoist the heavy item up to the second floor. The call box is made of cast iron and weighs about 1,500 pounds, and during the process of lifting it the wooden pallet broke and the box was nearly dropped. Fortunately it survived the fall, and it is proudly on display in the payphone exhibit area of THG’s Seattle museum today. A video with some more details is available on the museum’s YouTube channel.