Telephone Directory Collections.

[Greg G.]

I usually don't have much interest in telephone related artifacts, but there are some that tickle my fancy, local directories is one of them.  I only have two so far, 1939 and 1941 Seattle directories.  The 1941 directory lists my paternal grandparent's address and phone number.

[Russ Kirk]

Those are real nice to have!

[ESalter]

That's something I've been looking for and are pretty hard to find.  My hometown is Clinton, IA but our museum is right across the river in Fulton, IL.  We have a 1976 Clinton directory that lists my parents and grandparents, which is neat.  Just a couple months ago a good friend of mine found a 1956 Fulton, IL directory at an estate sale for $5.  It still shows 4 digit numbers in Fulton as well as the exchange names for Clinton and nearby.  Besides that it lists my other grandparents as well as several railroad tower/station locations that are no longer around, which is really neat.  I want to find more from around the area so visitors to the museum can look through them for relatives and such.

---Eric

[Phonesrfun]

I have Portland, OR from 1934 showing my grandparent's listing.

I also have Walla Walla, WA for 1945, 1946, 1956 and 1961.  Forum member Haf, from Germany actually has a 1932 Walla Walla, WA phone book!

Unrelated to where I live or have lived, I also have a 1941 Downey, IA, 1948 Lamar, CO, and 1945 Dallas, OR.

[Greg G.]

They're also of value to people doing genealogy research.  When I first posted about the 1941 Seattle directory, a guy registered and posted to ask about his Uncle Eric.  I'm presuming that's all he wanted, not a phone collector because he only posted twice.  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5619.0

[Matilo Telephones]

These are gorgeous. Love those pictures too. The embodyment of long distance communication. Spirit of telephony?

I too have a small collection of (Dutch) directories. They are from the 80's. I bought them because a catalogue of available telephones is included, with lists of available colors and other telephone equipment. Great reference material for my collection.

[DavePEI]

Telephone Directories are a great adjunct to collecting telephones. In my personal collection, I have every directory from 1958 to 2013, 1928, 1929, 1935, and 1945, spanning periods where the local company was called Telephone Company of Prince Edward Island, Prince Edward Island Telephone Company, Island Tel, Aliant, and now Bell Aliant.

Through their listings, you can follow the automation of Island exchanges, and see the changes in 1975-1976 as rural exchanges were automated across the Island. As another of my interests is genealogy, one can follow families through the years and see changes.

You can see the telephones on our road increasing in numbers from one during the 20s to 50s, then to every house on the road,

It seems just about every one who visits the museum with PEI ancestry looks through the books to find listings for family back through the years.

Mind you, it had taken me years to amass this collection - pick up old directories whenever you have a chance. There are very few around, and it will take years to wind up with a non broken set, but it is well worth it.

One thing in them I find interesting, is you will see the sets being promoted at the time in the included Telco ads.

Just another interesting branch of telephone collecting!

Dave

[Contempra]

Thank you Dave It would be cool if we could have these telephone directories in pdf.

[Dan/Panther]

Here's a good link.
D/P

http://www.oldtelephonebooks.com/pages/list

[Contempra]

thank you Dan for the link but i was talking about free directories ( sorry for the mistake )..

[DavePEI]

Thank you Dave It would be cool if we could have these telephone directories in pdf.

Actually, I do have several on=line, but not in PDF - not enough time to do them in PDF, and the oldest books are too fragile to scan:

http://www.islandregister.com/phones/phones.html

See the links 1/3 way down the page - [ 1889/90 Telephone Directory ] | [ 1922 Telephone Directory ] | [ 1928 Telephone Directory] | [ 1935 Telephone Directory ], all PEI.

Dave

[Contempra]

not downloadable dave ? or i'm wrong

[DavePEI]

not downloadable dave ? or i'm wrong

Viewable on-line.

Dave

[Contempra]

ok  thank you .

[DavePEI]

Last year, I did an inventory of all of the museum's telephone directories. I discovered a number of duplicates, which are advertised in the Classified section of the Forum.

Although I had thought I had a complete series from 1960 to the present, I discovered one later issue missing, 2008. I searched high and low for it to no avail. This winter, Linda rounded up a few more books here in this house, and lo and behold, what appeared? One of them was the missing 2008 issue.

So now, I have an unbroken series of 54 years from 1960 onwards, and 1928, 1929, 1945, 1967 and 1958 issues.

What a pleasure to find it finally! Hidden in plain sight.

Dave