The Telephone Museum

08/28/2026

We have a piece of the ground station bearing at the museum. Stop by tomorrow 10am-4pm for a tour and look for it by the front door.

08/03/2026

Do you remember the mushroom in downtown Portland, Maine?

https://www.facebook.com/share/1968DdKG1V/

07/04/2026

Seeing Red, White, and Blue in the Archives! 🇺🇸☎️

Happy 250th Birthday, America! While the rest of Downeast Maine is out waving the stars and stripes today, we’re celebrating America's Semiquincentennial with a look inside a standard piece of telecom history: the 25-pair telephone cable.

If you've ever looked inside an old telephone junction box, you might have noticed a beautiful chaos of colorful wires. But there's a strict method to the madness! Developed by AT&T and Western Electric, the standard 25-pair color code uses 5 tip colors and 5 ring colors to identify every single line without a label.

Look closely at our photo: pair #1 (White/Blue) and pair #6 (Red/Blue) bring a little bit of patriotic flair right to the telephone pole! Before fiber optics and digital switching, these copper pairs were the literal nervous system connecting our nation.

📢 Holiday Update: The Museum is closed today, July 4th, so our volunteers can celebrate the holiday with their families.

But don't worry, you can still catch us this summer! Our regular seasonal hours are every Saturday through the end of September, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Come visit us next weekend to see our working vintage switchboards and dive deeper into the tech that kept America talking.

03/18/2026

Happy St Patrick's Day from all of us at The Telephone Museum. Sláinte.

02/03/2026

Check out this video on the brief history of the invention of the area code system.

https://youtu.be/eNASAhsyjxY

This video describes the history of phone numbers in America and explains how area codes revolutionized long distance calling.My original Long Lines video: h...

01/29/2026

Check out the private line pole construction pictured here.

While we are on the topic woods phone lines, here's a Great Northern Line crew in the 1930s. The Maine Forest Service frequently tied into GNP woods lines back in the day, or shared their poles where there were private circuits. GNP had a large network of woods lines throughout territory where fire towers and patrolman camps were located. These guys may be working on a woods line given the worker out in the woods and the single line heading that way. The earliest MFS phone lines were single ground lines. These were later replaced with metallic circuits and eventually multi-pair insulated lines before the radio began to make the woods line obsolete in the 1950's.

01/15/2026

Check out this nice example of a candlestick phone.

A peek into the Old Speck fire tower in the early 1930's. Front and center is the map table and alidade. Sitting on the table is watchman Daniel Wight's candlestick telephone. This was the only communication with the outside world - through a 14 mile metallic circuit line strung on trees to Newry Corner. (Eric Wight photo)

11/22/2025

A quick history lesson on Area Codes.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16jVyMvEV9/

07/02/2025

Make your summer plans to visit the museum this year. We are open to the public for tours starting this Saturday July 5th and each Saturday through end of September. You can also catch us by chance on other days of the week, or contact us ahead and we may be able to accommodate your schedule.

https://thetelephonemuseum.org/plan-your-visit/

Visit The Telephone Museum in 2025! The museum is open July through September on Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and other days by appointment or chance. To ensure our volunteer guides can accommodate your group, please schedule your tour in advance by contacting us at [email protected] or 207-667-9...

06/24/2025

Great story about teaching younger generations about the landline phone. This is why our museum exists. To educate young and old about the telephone and switching equipment that powers it.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14JsiJXU3Kq/