This page is sponsored by Specialty Answering Service.

A Brief History of the Telephone Directory.

Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his telephone in 1876. He demonstrated it to visitors at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition the same year. In early 1878 he installed the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut. The first telephone directory - a single 14 x 21 cm. sheet - was issued in New Haven on 21st. February that year. Closer to the end of the same year a telephone book was issued containing numerous pages and advertisements. This was the first telephone directory with more than one sheet of paper. San Francisco also issued a directory during 1878.

1878. Single sheet telephone subscribers list. The first telephone directory.

Alexander Graham Bell's patent on the telephone gave Bell Telephone a monopoly from 1876 to 1893. During that period the company opened exchanges in most of the largest cities of the United States. It also organized a number of regional operating companies. In 1899 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) became the parent company.

1900. Telephone directory for Alaska Telephone Co.

Telephone numbers were introduced in Lowell, Massachusetts in late 1879. Party lines were popular, because of their lower cost, in the first half of the 20th century. Telephones on a party line were electrically connected, so that they would ring simultaneously, and transmit the same sounds. A specific pattern of rings was used to identify each phone on the same party line. The telephone book listing usually gave a phone number, a hyphen, and a code to identify the pattern of rings. The number of digits in a phone number was variable, since the numbers were only used as identifiers. In rural areas, they might range from one to three digits. In larger cities, a telephone number would consist of an exchange name and a five-digit number.

1906. Telephone directory from the time of the San Francisco earthquake.

1908 Zenith Telephone Co. directory.

In many parts of the country, especially the suburbs of large cities, there are privately published telephone directories, supported by advertising, usually covering a smaller area than the official telephone book. These "proprietary" phone books go back well before World War II. In the United States, the official telephone book will usually clearly identify the telephone company that published it. Sometimes it is hard to tell which is the official telephone book and which is the proprietary one for any given city.

1914. Pittsburgh telephone directory.

To prepare the way for nationwide dialling, in 1947 AT&T and Bell Laboratories developed the North American Numbering Plan, creating three-digit area codes that would divide all of North America. Within each area code, every seven-digit phone number would be unique. When long-distance dialling was first implemented, it could only be used by operators placing calls for customers. Customer dialling was phased in as each central office invested in the necessary equipment. Generally, area codes were first announced in telephone books in the late 1950s.

1924. Milwaukee telephone directory.

All-number calling was introduced in 1961. Some listings immediately changed to seven digits, although exchange names continued to appear alongside them until late in the decade.

1957 London telephone directory.

Telephone directories have been in use in England since the end of the nineteenth century. The telephone service was introduced in 1879 and the first London directory was produced in 1880. The National Telephone Company issued its first known directory on January 15th. which contained details of over 250 subscribers connected to three London exchanges. Post Office Telecommunications and numerous private companies soon followed. In 1896 the first phonebook for the whole country was published in a single volume. It containing 1350 pages and 81,000 entries. City and county directories have been in continuous production ever since. During the war directories were pulped because of the shortage of paper. Directories from 1884 to 1984 have been scanned and are available on genealogical websites. The BT Archive contains an almost complete collection of directories for the UK (and Ireland, up to 1921).

1963 Sheffield telephone directory.

The first telephone used in Ireland was in 1876, the same year that Bell invented the device. The first telephone directory may be the one produced by The National Telephone Company dated 1904 - 05. Another Irish directory dates from 1907, but is incomplete. Up until the 1960's directories were mainly produced for the local Department of Posts & Telegraphs switchboard. These are usually plain typed lists. Every exchange in the country would have had such a list, but surviving examples are rare.

1961 Irish telephone directory.

The Irish classified directory - the Yellow Pages, was first produced in 1968. It went regional in 1984/85, later became part of the regional public directory and in 2001 was once again issued as a stand alone, regional business directory.

Today telephone directories are used for many purposes, other than those intended. Old telephone directories are scanned and reissued on compact disk, for family history and genealogical research. They can also be used for demographic research, local history, the history of technology and various other purposes.

Two examples of telephone directories as genealogical tools, one from New Zealand and one from England. Irish telephone directories, though not as old as those from other countries, can be used for much the same purpose. To view our current collection FOLLOW THIS LINK.

Acknowledgements: Most of the images on this page are from recent sales of telephone directories on eBay. The sale of telephone directories is big business, especially in the US, although there is a growing interest in UK directories which has become evident in the recent past. Irish directories rarely feature. The information on US directories above is based on a detailed history by Gwillim Law at http://www.oldtelephonebooks.com (Used with thanks). Our current directory "wants list" is available on THIS LINK.

Some images of old telephone directories.

Rochester.

Mountain States Telephone Co.

Statesville.

New Auburn.

Fort Wayne.

Houston.

Ireland 1963.

Ireland 1972.

Ireland Yellow Pages 1972.

Ireland 1983 Part 2.

Images not to scale.

- Page Sponsors Comment -

A telephone answering service assists your business by managing your telephone calls 24 hours a day while providing sales and customer service support. And, an answering service is affordable enough for even the smallest business to employ. If your business needs a virtual receptionist or more advanced services such as inbound and outbound call center services, Specialty Answering Service can create the ideal solution for your needs and your budget.

(Advertisement)

If you have old telephone directories that you no longer need, or information on their use, please contact us.

 Images are not to scale.