Telephone Pioneers of America Canadian Banner.

[.....]

I bought two boxes full of Telephone Pioneers of America and Northern Telecom memorabilia from a downsizing collector. These boxes were chocked full. There has to be close to 300 to 400 items. Here is a 1990's large Canadian Banner that was part of the collection.

[CanadianGuy]

Neat! I always wish I could buy some of the stuff I've seen in my travels as a cable guy here in Manitoba. I've met so many people who either works at MTS, retired from MTS, has/had a spouse who did, or knows someone who did. The history may fade into obscurity even quicker now that they've been sold (back to) to Bell.

I was in contact via email with the guy who looks after the little museum the company has here, but he's long retired and spends his winters down south so I wasn't able to get a tour. I wonder if Bell can make the Pioneers dismantle the museum, and if so, what would happen to the stuff there? One guy told me he's seen old cordboards from rural offices sitting at the head office out back by the garbage bins, so my guess is companies probably care even less as the years go by, and eventually it'll all be gone or sold to private collectors or someone who has a lead on it before it even gets advertised.

Interestingly, I still see many rotary and touch tone phones in the central offices still connected that look like they used to serve a purpose for testing lines, rather than for regular employee use.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded post. I hope you post more pictures, or maybe a link if you have them on an image hosting site. One of my customers had a book titled "MTS: People of service" which I'd love to find a copy.

Thanks!