Old Box Phone

“Old Box Phone,” Madison Historical, accessed April 23, 2024, https://madison-historical.siue.edu/archive/items/show/2174.

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This wall-mounted wooden box telephone was a staple in the household in the early 20th century. One would speak into a funnel that protruded from the front of the box and would listen through a funnel that would have been brought up to the ear. When a phone call was directed to this phone, a mechanism inside the box would ring the two bells placed on the box In the telephone pictured, the bells are mouned on the front. Telephones like this often included a space for a paper record of phone numbers that one might find useful, such as the phone numbers of different services or family and friends. A paper such as this is included with the pictured telephone.

This telephone and list of phone numbers were digitized as a part of Madison Historical's class visit to Liberty Middle School in February 2020.

2020 Liberty Middle School Class Visit

• culture
• industry

• Brockmeier, Luke
• Seal, Ronald and Mary

Early 1900

• Object

• jpg

• Missouri

• Brockmeier-Luke-O-001