Brazil Telephone Museum

Brazil Telephone Museum MazelTovCocktail (Atlas Obscura User)

Eugenio Inacio Martini has been collecting artifacts from across international and Brazilian communication history for over 30 years. He provides visitors with a passionate and interactive journey through these technological advancements.

The oldest piece in the collection is a telegraph from 1835. This device was invited by Samuel Morse along with the famous communication code that bears his name. One can still see the lever that sent signals down a wire, laying the groundwork for future long-distance communication. Martini’s collection also includes a functional phonograph that plays records when cranked by hand.

The museum is home to an example of a telephone from 1876, the year the invention was first patented by Alexander Graham Bell. The many different models of wood-and-steel phones and manual switchboards eventually evolved into the colorful, plastic rotary versions from the 1950s. The museum also has some of the first answering machines and cellular telephones ever developed.

Know Before You Go

Martini owns the cellular phone store just a few doors down from the museum. It is good to check in there if no one answers the buzzer at the museum itself.