(Above) The first telephone installed at Jackson’s Point Camp in Ontario, now on display at territorial headquarters in Toronto

Over the coming year, Salvationist is showcasing just a small assortment of the more than 350,000 items that The Salvation Army’s Heritage Centre in Toronto has to offer.

This month, we are featuring the first telephone at The Salvation Army’s Jackson’s Point Camp in Ontario, currently in the territorial commander’s office at territorial headquarters in Toronto.

Established in April 1916 on the south shore of Ontario’s Lake Simcoe, Jackson’s Point Camp was (and still is) a wonderful place to escape from the heat, smog and congestion of the big city.

The installation of a new phone that summer was an important development, a lifeline connecting the camp to the outside world, whether it was for a medical emergency, a call to parents or simply an order to the grocer. Though the manual hand-rung phone was a faithful servant, new technology brought in the rotary telephone, and the old set was eventually retired, all of its conversations silent forever.

“We’ve come a long way from one wind-up ring phone without even a dial to iPads and cellphones,” says Major Ron Millar, the director of archives at the Heritage Centre, “yet they were still able to communicate as needed, and had a great camp experience.”