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Posted by on June 1, 2008, 12:22 am
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> The 20-page directory was issued in November of 1878, just two years
> after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The phone book
> contained information useful to 391 subscribers within the New Haven,
> Conn., area who were obviously still learning their way around the new
> communication device.
Some telephone histories have a copy of a page from the NYC telephone
book to show the 3L-4n dialing arrangement. I've tried matching that
up with a current phone book but found no matches.
Some time ago, we compared random pages of a 1959 Phila white pages
against a current version. To my surprise there were far more matches
than I expected (same name, phone number, address). A number of names
and addresses were the same but with a different number. For some
unusual ethnic names, we could see movement in the city, that is, we'd
see "John Kaputnick" in an old neighborhood and then "Mrs. J
Kaputnick" in a newer neighborhood in an apt, obviously the widow who
had moved on. (Typical of that particular ethnicity and
neighborhood).
To my surprise, we didn't find many matching business listings. Small
businesses either didn't exist, changed their name, or had moved.
Many large businesses, such as department stores or banks, had changed
or were bought out over the years.
>From then to now many"'mon nn pop" businesses shut down; sometimes
from competition from large chains, sometimes after the parents
retired and the kids didn't want to take over the business. The
parents had to work very hard in those small businesses and many
wanted better for their kids; they sent them to college so as to not
have to work so hard.
| ![World's First Telephone Book Surfaces [Telecom]](/images/header.jpg)
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