Working Telephones at Willowbrook

The Telephone Museum of Ellsworth, Maine has been working on a project with Willowbrook in the last few months. As you might recall there is a phone like this that is on the wall in the kitchen of the Dr. Isaac Trafton House. It has always been a static exhibit of the object. During the summer Marlene Gerry ran telephone wire from this phone to the ice cream parlor where a long term loaned phone of similar design will be mounted on the wall. Both kids and adults will be able to communicate between the two phones. There will be information and interactive play/learning with this device. We may do another set up somewhere else on the campus in the future. Our phone is in the process of being brought to Bucksport where Dave Thompson of the Telephone Museum will work from the comfort of his home to re-wire the phone to make it operable; he has gotten a donation of an intact authentic cloth jacketed wire to go to the ear piece as ours' is badly frayed. Look forward to this new offering in May. In addition, if anyone has a similar phone or a phone of similar vintage, i.e., 1900-1920s, that they would be interested in donating to the museum for other such working collection scenarios please contact: director@willowbrookmuseum. We are also looking for hand crank dynamos aplenty for a student workshop.