Unique pieces from Bell's historical collections, chosen from among 30,000 items stored in a secret location, are part of a new exhibit at Pointe à Caillere museum.

The director of exhibits at the museum says "Hello, Montreal" is an experience in how the telephone changed communication over 140 years.

"It really changes how people communicated through the 19th century through today," said Elisabeth Thibault.

The exhibit covers the first attempts to transmit sound, to Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876, to modern day cell phones which are already on the verge of being obsolete.

Martine Turcotte, the Vice Chair, Quebec, of Bell, said the exhibit covers much more than the company's history.

"It goes not only through the story of Bell through the years, but more importantly through the story of the city of Montreal," she said.

In 1900 only six percent of households in Montreal had telephones.

Twenty years later switchboards were handling one million calls a day.

The need for 2,000 trained operators opened up new opportunities for women in the workforce.

"Women worked as teachers, nurses, worked in houses as domestics, so this was a totally new profession for them," said Lise Noel.

The woman in charge of Bell's historical records and artefacts maintains the archives in a secret location.

"It's a special place. There's no place like it in Canada where we keep all of our heritage," said Noel.

It contains a vast selection of ancient technology: wall-mounted phones with separate microphones and earpieces, the first switchboard ever built (in 1878), and the formerly ubiquitous phone books.

Choosing the best items from the collection was a challenge.

Noel selected classic Princess phones, first built in 1959 and sold with the slogan "It's little... It's lovely... It lights" -- which advertised that it functioned as a nightlight.

A massive switchboard cabinet, tipping the scales at more than 350 kg, is also on display.

"It was heartbreaking having to choose,' said Noel.

Among the interesting items are Jean Drapeau's police hotline, and early videophones.

The exhibit runs until January 2018 at the Pointe à Calliere museum.

 

Bell is the parent company of CTV Montreal.