We recently connected with John Stallone and have shared our conversation below.

Hi John, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Keeping the history of the telephone alive

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Long Island Telephone Museum began nearly 50 years ago and was the Brain child of Ralph Krause for the centennial of the Telephone in 1976. It was founded by the Telephone Pioneers of America an organization that was started in 1911 with the help of Alexander Graham Bell.
It’s first location was in the Huntington Station central office of the New York Telephone Company.
Its humble beginnings wasn’t much more than a large room with some artifacts to view. I first became aquatinted with the museum at the ripe old age of 10 in 1980 and have been there ever since.
In 1990 the museum won a grant and was offered a new space by New York Telephone in Commack after this central office was converted to digital switching equipment, this new equipment took up much less space than the previous mechanical switching system. With the newly found space the museum was built and had its grand opening in May of that year.
Today we represent the New Vision Pioneers of Verizon and our museum stands out from others. We differ from most as we have many hands on exhibits that lets people connect with history in a unique way more so now than ever before.
A new generation is able to touch and feel equipment that has directly impacted on the development of the phone in their pockets today. We have pay phones and turn of the century wooden crank phones and other rotary type telephones that are not easily found today as they were 30 years ago when we first opened.
Our displays have talking mannequins dressed in period attire speaking about unique telephone experiences.
I have had a hand in curating a wonderful collection of artifacts and developing
a tour that traces the evolution of the telephone highlighting key developments with an exciting live interpretation that I present myself.
I have been lucky enough to have had a career with the telephone company and share my passion for the telephone and the history of our great company with employees and visitors alike.
I’m honored to be the curator and steward of our shared history for the next generation.

Our museum is open the first Sunday of every month from 1 to 4pm except on holiday weekends. The real magic occurs on our private group tours where the discovery of how the telephone was invented is expressed through my live interpretation.
We have a rotating special exhibit on different topics such as the first color telephones of 1954, ther famed industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss and his contributions to the Bell System or the special developed telephone for the famous Howard Johnson’s hotel.
Visit our website at LongIslandTelephoneMuseum.com
And follow us on Instagram and Facebook where you will get insights on telephone history every day
Reach out and schedule a private tour
History is Calling!!!!!!!!

Any advice for managing a team?

Keeping your workforce engaged through the history of their job and company

How did you build your audience on social media?

Gaining recognition on social media is not easy but with a strong message and consistency we have built a following of history minded individuals who are hungry to grow their knowledge and thru this we have gained more visitors to our museum

Contact Info:

• Website: https://LongIslandTelephoneMuseum.com
• Instagram: @longislandtelephonemuseum
• Facebook: Longisland telephonemuseum
• Twitter: LongIslandTelephoneMuseum

Image Credits

John Stallone