The power to connect instantly, no matter the distance, has reshaped American business and society. From the telegraph of the nineteenth century to today’s digital age, Hagley collections capture the ever-changing story of telecommunications and computing.
Subject Strengths |
||
Telegraph
|
Connect the dots between the telegraph, the railroad industry, and labor history. Relevant collections include the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company records. We also hold publications from the Order of Railroad Telegraphers labor union. |
|
Radio and sound |
Make waves through Hagley’s electromagnetic collections. Our collections span everything from transmission and broadcasting to reception and advertising. Highlights include:
|
|
Television |
Broadcast television history via the David Sarnoff Library collections at Hagley. These collections tell the story of television and telecasting development at RCA. If business programming is more your speed, check out The DuPont Show or Chamber of Commerce’s It’s Your Business series. |
|
| Telephone | Make connections with an MCI “Friends & Family” plan. The vast MCI collections at Hagley document all facets of their history from 1968 to the end of the 1990s. They also document changes in regulatory policy, legislation, and public perception. Hagley also holds the collection of Lois K. Herr, who advocated women’s rights in the workplace at AT&T. | |
| Typewriters |
Click, clack into the past with Hagley's collections on typewriting. The Donald & Carolyn Hoke collection of typewriter advertising and ephemera offers insight into the rise and fall of this once-ubiquitous machine. |
|
Computers and computing |
Go digital with Hagley’s robust collections related to the history of computing. Standouts include:
|
01001000 01100001 01100111 01101100 01100101 01111001 00100000 01001101 01110101 01110011 01100101 01110101 01101101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001100 01101001 01100010 01110010 01100001 01110010 01111001
|
|
Research guidesLearn more about our collections relating to telecommunications and computing.
David Sarnoff Library collections
|
|
|
"Mine's an RCA too!" World War II era RCA radio-phonograph advertisement, 1943 (Acc. 2014.277). |
|
Explore FurtherSelected digital resources related to telecommunications and computing history. David Povilus Collection of Trade Catalogs (on the Internet Archive)
|
|
MCI standing up to AT&T's "Ma Bell" in the comic book MCI Presents the Fifth Freedom, 1973 (Acc. 2225). |
Top image credits (left to right): Telephone operator at switchboard, photo by Frank Schoonover, circa 1910 (Acc. 2017.239). RCA Victor's "Stylist Sportable" television, circa 1957 (Acc. 2464.68). UNIVAC 1100/10 computer system, 1973 (Acc. 1985.261). MCI Network Control Center, circa 1990 (2000.239).