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HOME > Human Interests > Telephone Collectors & Their Collections |
Telephone
Collectors and
Their Collections
The following photos were sent to me by collectors with various degrees of addiction to the hobby of telephone collecting. And, as you will see, it's not just the telephone itself that is sought after by these hobbyists; telephone switching equipment, phone booths, signs, advertisements, toys, photos, technical manuals and books, tools of the trade and many other telephone related items can be found in these collectors' homes.
If you suffer from this addiction of telephone collecting and would like to publicly admit it with some photos of you and your collection, please send them my way! Email me and I'll add you to this growing list of others that have openly admitted their addiction to telephone collecting :-)
Collector #1
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"Below is a photo of me with some of my Ericsson switchboards. My collection is almost entirely pre-1925 Swedish LM Ericsson with a handful of English Ericsson models thrown in to represent the Ericsson Railway types. My favorite telephone is my 1906 Ericsson twin-tier BC2000 walnut desk telephone." - Paul Sidey, TCI, ATCA, STSF; http://old-ericsson.com |
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Collector #2
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Although my display room is still under construction, and all my phones are in storage, I do have a photo of my switch-room (shown below)." - John Novack. He stated he will have a photo of himself to add at a later date. |
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Collector #3
| I collect and exhibit Antique Telephones. Here is a photo of me with my latest asquisition. Its a 1910 Ericsson AB120 Ornate Fiddleback. Also, a photo of one of my exhibits. - R. Christianson http://www.museumphones.com | |
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Collector #4
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Here is a crude composite of my collection - some are at my office, some in a back foyer and some in the basement. (I decided to defer improving the picture quality until I had a little more time.) - Hal Long |
 Click image above to view full-size |
Collector #5
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From Sam Etler - "I collect all manner of telco documentation, BSPs, publications, etc. This is part of my growing collection." |
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Collector #6
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From Paul Wills - "It was a fluke of history that started my collection. The cash starved condition of the Penn Central allowed equipment to remain in service that the telephone companies had phased out many years before. This allowed a visitor in 1977 to see a virtual snapshot of telephone technology from the 1930's. I walked into the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad wire chief's office on the first day of my job with Amtrak in August of 1977. That marked the beginning of my interest in vintage railroad communications equipment. With the reconstruction of the Northeast Corridor by Amtrak big changes took place and, seemingly overnight, a modern fiber optic communications system began to replace the vintage plant that I got to know. As it was removed from service, I tried to preserve working examples of the various types of equipment that were used. When the Western Electric No. 5 toll test board in "PO" telegraph office in Philadelphia was retired in 1981, everything came together in a big way and this reconstruction of a typical Pennsylvania Railroad wire chief's office resulted. Of course, I couldn't stop there and eventually added a 100 line PABX and other associated pieces of equipment. It's still a "work in progress" but it keeps me off the streets at night. More photos as well as a tribute to the PRR communications plant can be seen at www.cedarknolltelephone.com".
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This space available for future collector's photos . . . maybe yours?
