Midwest commercial architecture photograph collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
George Mason University
2400 Fenwick Library
Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library MS2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Mieko Palazzo
Phone: (703) 993-2220
Fax: (703) 993-2669
Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

Public Domain. There are no known restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Midwest commercial architecture photograph collection, C0188, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
0.1 Linear Feet 15 folders
Creator:
Central Union Telephone Company
Abstract:
Thirty-two photographs, each approximately 4 x 5 inches, depicting commercial buildings in rural northwestern Ohio with recently installed Central Union Telephone Company telephones.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Midwest commercial architecture photograph collection, C0188, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

Thirty-two photographs, each approximately 4 x 5 inches, depicting commercial buildings in rural northwestern Ohio with recently installed telephones. The Central Union Telephone Company brought local and long distance calling to commercial buildings and advertised the new service with signage. Signs for Central Union can be seen in twenty-seven of the photographs. These photographs could have been used as a way to document their placement. There are a variety of commercial buildings present in the photographs, as well as telephone poles, merchants' signs, displays of goods, customers, horse drawn wagons, and bicycles. Three of the photograph the set up of a telephone operator, as well as three men posing humorously for the camera.

Biographical / historical:

The Central Union Telephone Company was originally based in Chicago and in 1883 took over the Midland Telephone Company, a Bell organization also based in Chicago. Many Bell patents expired in 1893 and 1894 resulting in an increase of competing telephone companies. By the early 1900s the Central Union Telephone Company was headquartered in Indiana and was organized to develop telephone service in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Mergers in the telephone industry in the early 1900s resulted in Central Union Telephone becoming part of Indiana Bell, Illinois Bell, and Ohio Bell. In 1920 Central Union Telephone Company was purchased by the Ohio Bell Telephone Company which emerged from the Cleveland Telephone Company. In the 1920s telephone service in Ohio was unified under Ohio Bell.

Acquisition information:
Collection purchased from Fine Antiquarian Books in 2010.
Processing information:

Processed by and EAD markup completed by Greta Kuriger in January 2011. Updated by Greta Kuriger Suiter in March 2013. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in January 2023.

Arrangement:

Arranged by subject.

Physical location:
R 44, C 1, S 2
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard