“Little Wonder” toy telephones in original package: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An acoustic toy telephone set having two transceivers and a 76" connecting string. Each transceiver has a ear-piece with parchment diaphragm, a small bell, and a ringer mechanism to actuate the bell. Wood-tone finish. Original box top has color graphic on top and instructions underneath. The box bottom is missing.

Each transceiver is printed: "The Little / Wonder / Telephone / Patent Applied For." Printed on box top: "New York Chicago / The Little Wonder Telephone / Patent Applied for"; printed under lid: "The Little Wonder Telephone / Ring in the usual way / Perfect / Little / Telephone / Long Distance Please / For Boys and Girls / Directions / Take the telephone, unwind the cord and stretch it t[o its fu]ll ex[tent.] / The person delivering the message to place the open end of [one] of the / tubes close to the mouth in a [low] but clear tone of voice and [that] person / [receiving the] message to place the open part of the other tube close to [the ear, c]are being taken to keep the cord quite tight, the cord can be made / to stretch any length. The Parchment in this [phone is] the [Red] / [Imported from England and just as sensitive as steel. Pat sp in our new] / [way.]"

Toy versions of technologies frequently appear soon after the introduction of the subject device. These toy phones were made about 25 years after Alexander Graham Bell’s initial introduction of commercial telephones. Toys not only provide entertainment, they also serve to familiarize children with the technology, and to teach operating skills and etiquette. Acoustic phones (also known as Lovers’ Phones) do not require electricity to function. Although this unit has the appearance of battery-operated wall phones of the era, the sound vibrations are transmitted mechanically via the string that connects the two transceivers. This toy could actually transmit sound over short distances as long as the string was kept taut.

This toy phone was displayed in the exhibition Person To Person from 1976 thru 1989 with other toys, sheet music, and postcards, as an example of the cultural ephemera associated with telephones. The image seen on the lid is as interesting as the toy itself. The toy is shown being used in an upper-middle class setting by a boy and a girl. A diagram shows them pretending to hold a conversation between New York and Chicago, possible then with electrical telephones but not with an acoustic phone.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: ca 1900
• Object Name: acoustic telephone
• Object Name: toy
• Measurements: each phone: 5 1/2 in x 2 1/4 in x 2 in; 13.97 cm x 5.715 cm x 5.08 cm
• Measurements: box lid: 5 in x 5 7/8 in x 7/8 in; 12.7 cm x 14.9225 cm x 2.2225 cm
• ID Number: 2023.0013.01
• accession number: 2023.0013
• catalog number: 2023.0013.01
• Credit Line: Gift of Mark L. Beveridge
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.