I wasn't sure where to put this, but figured some of you might be interested. Swann Auction Galleries is selling a huge 1909 Bell System wall map of their lines across the U.S. and Canada. The link is (hopefully) to the map (lot 8) in the auction catalog. Sale is THIS Thursday June 6.
https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2512+++++++8+&refno=++759081&saletype=
A couple of those sold at the Bruneau auction last August. They were in the "overflow" room.
I think the first published Long lines map was issued in an American Bell Stockholders report. It was printed on onion skin (tissue paper).
This was before Bell restructured the company and made the long lines division the parent company. aka AT&T
Jim
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Side note: Under AT&T the companies involved in the patent infringement lawsuit settled and became part of Western Electric (Barton and Gray, aka Graybar) and their manufacturing plants became the main locations for WE. This was done with cash and stock trades.
They also spun off Graybar as an employee owned electrical division that sold non WE branded electrical items.
AT&T issued large orders to these plants. The orders were used to secure loans for expanding the plants. It was a pretty slick way to fast track Universal service and to get rid of the patent infringement issue.
$668 final price
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