32 results for: Telecommunications
Photograph
Long-distance operators at the Sunset Telephone Company, Seattle, circa 1905
The Sunset Telephone Company hired men to set poles and run wiring, and women to operate the switchboards. All calls were connected by hand through the switchboard, and the women who made the connections soon became known as the "hello girls."In this photo, taken sometime between 1903 and 1906, a group of women telephone operators sit at the long distance…
ID Number:1983.10.7641
Date:Circa 1905
Photograph
Women at Sunset Telephone switchboard, circa 1905
In 1883, Sunset Telephone Company became Seattle's first telephone company. By 1893, the company offered local service long-distance calling to Portland. All local and long-distance calls were placed through operators, who connected callers manually through a switchboard. From the beginning, all operators at Sunset were women.In this photo, two women connect callers at a telephone switchboard. Another woman, possibly their…
ID Number:1983.10.7643
Date:Circa 1905
Videorecording
Oral history interview with Walter Straley, July-August 1985
Walter William Straley (1913-1999) was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and attended school and college in the midwest. In 1933, Straley accepted an entry level position with Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. selling services and collecting overdue bills in the Des Moines office. Straley excelled at public speaking and soon began moving up in the Bell Company. The family relocated every…
ID Number:1985.135.4
Date:1985
Photograph
Radio station KFQX in Olmstead home, Seattle, 1924
Roy and Elise Olmstead purchased a large home in the Mount Baker neighborhood in 1924. They started a commercial radio station called KFQX, based in a spare room of their residence. After Prohibition agents raided the home and arrested Roy Olmstead, they speculated that the couple used the radio broadcasts of children's stories to send coded messages to rumrunners, who…
ID Number:1987.30.1
Date:1924
Photograph
Elise Olmstead reading story book into microphone, circa 1924
Elise Olmstead, originally from England, was the second wife of Roy Olmstead, one of the most notorious bootleggers in King County during the Prohibition years of the 1920s. The Olmsteads started a radio station in their Mt. Baker home. Elise Olmstead read children's stories that were broadcast, and Prohibition agents speculated that the stories contained coded messages for rumrunners. This…
ID Number:1987.30.2
Date:Circa 1924
Photograph
Julia So-Happy and Nettie Shawaway visiting Seattle Post-Intelligencer building, Seattle, October 14, 1956
In this image, Julia So Happy, left, and Nettie Shawaway, the wives of Washini religious leaders from Wapato, Washington, inspect a teletype machine at the International News Service Bureau in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer building in downtown Seattle. Caption information derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
ID Number:2000.107.095.29.02
Date:1956
Photograph
Craig McCaw holding cell phone, September 1986
Craig McCaw (b. 1949) was an early investor in cellular technology. McCaw's father owned a cable TV company in Centralia which Craig and his brothers inherited and ran together under Craig's leadership. In 1981, McCaw began buying cellular licenses in cities across the US, and in 1987 he sold the cable TV business and fully transitioned the company to cellular…
ID Number:2000.107.121.04.01
Date:1986
Photograph
Nancy Lightfoot making the first phone call from a bus, Seattle, September 11, 1985
In September 1985, cellular telephones were installed on four Washington State ferries and five Metro buses for a trial period of four and three months, respectively. The phones required a credit card to use, and cost a dollar for a two-minute local call, with 50 cents for each additional minute. In this image passenger Nancy Lightfoot places one of the…
ID Number:2000.107.124.31.03
Date:1985
Photograph
Pat Suzuki singing in the Variety Club telethon, Seattle, January 31, 1976
The Variety Club (also Variety, the Children's Charity) is an organization founded as a social club for Pittsburgh entertainers in 1927. As the club grew and formed local chapters across the world, the club began raising funds for disadvantaged children, often through local telethons. KIRO-TV in Seattle held an annual Variety Club Telethon from 1969-1989 to benefit Children's Orthopedic Hospital…
ID Number:2000.107.171.09.01
Date:1976
Photograph
Variety Club Telethon volunteers answering phones, Seattle, February 7, 1971
The Variety Club (also Variety, the Children's Charity) is an organization founded as a social club for Pittsburgh entertainers in 1927. As the club grew and formed local chapters across the world, the club began raising funds for disadvantaged children, often through local telethons. KIRO-TV in Seattle held an annual Variety Club Telethon from 1969-1989 to benefit Children's Orthopedic Hospital…
ID Number:2000.107.171.09.03
Date:1971