Communication Collection

After World War Two - Heathrow Airport Facilities
After World War Two - The rather basic Heathrow Airport Reception and Communication Facilities. Date: 1946

Poster, Night Mail, quoting part of the poem by W H Auden written for and narrated in the documentary film of the same name (1936). circa 1930s

Papyrus of Ani (Book of the Dead) - The Judgement
(Above) -Twelve Gods seated in Order, as judges before a table of offerings. (Below) - The Psychostasia of Weighing of the Conscience of Ani

British Army messager pigeon service
Taking birds out: to the trenches by despatch-riders to let the pigeons fly for training. Regular going and coming supply service of birds between the pigeon homing lofts at Divisional

Pin-up calendar girl by David Wright, 1950
A woman with her red hair swept up in a bun, poses elegantly in some diaphanous lingerie as she speaks on a red telephone. Date: 1950

Yost Light Running Typewriter No. 15
A Yost Light Running Typewriter No.15. Date: 1910

AFS despatch rider and messenger, WW2
An AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) despatch rider and messenger on a motorbike at an LFS sub-station during the Second World War

Carrier Pigeon poster
Poster warning people of the dangers of shooting carrier pigeons who may be carrying life or death messages. Carrier pigeons, we are told, are a vital part of RAF

Girl Guides: Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret send courier
Princess Elizabeth, patrol leader in the Buckingham Palace Company, sends a message by courier pigeon to Lady Baden Powell at Guide Headquarters

SOS message from Titanic
A wireless message received by the Russian steamer Birma from the Titanic about five minutes after Titanic struck the iceberg that sank her

Policeman at a police call box
A policeman on the phone at a police public call box on a London street

Metropolitan Police walkie talkie radio
A Metropolitan Police walkie talkie radio

Typesetter at work
A compositor at a the Lund Humphries print works places a small type glyph on a forme rack, finishing a page of imposing surface text prior to inking and printing. Photograph by Heinz Zinram

Telephone Switchboard
New Scotland Yard switchboard

Gutenbergs printing press
Gutenberg inspects the first sheet of his Bible, which has just come off the press

Gutenbergs press, with books
Gutenbergs press, reconstructed from what was left of it, and housed in the Deutsche Buchgewerbehaus at Leipzig, Germany

Silhouettes from the Somme by H. L. Oakley
Various scenes on the Somme cut by famous silhouette artist, Captain H. L. Oakley showing the work to be done when pursuing the retreating Germans

Christmas parcels for the trenches 1916
Army Post Office in Regents Park, was receiving a rate of half a million parcels for Christmas a day for the soldiers in the trenches

The Evening Wireless - Komarjan Bridge, WW1
The Surrey Yeomanry on the Struma Valley Front, Salonika 1917-1918. The Evening Wireless - Komarjan Bridge. By Frank Algernon Stewart (1877-1945). 1917-1918

Advert for using a telephone
It pays to telephone ! Remember - a telephone in your home saves you time, money, and worry, and minimises inconvenience, anxiety, and loneliness

Sikh Troops Digging
Sikh infantry in the British army digging communication trenches and laying cables to connect up advanced positions

Transatlantic communications: telephoning London to New York
How the London telephone subscriber will " get" New York: the wonders of transatlantic telephony, as explained by The Illustrated London News in 1927. Date: 1927

The Railway Junction. A signal changing from stop to go. This is a classic British semaphore stop signal (lower quadrant type)

Printing equipment at a German printer s
A flat-bed press and other printing equipment in a German printers workshop (Buchdruckerwerkstatte)

Cable Bay, Rhosneigr, Anglesey, North Wales
View of Cable Bay, Rhosneigr, Isle of Anglesey, North Wales. The underwater Atlantic telegraph came ashore here. Date: early 20th century

GPO map of Mail Steamship Routes. Date: circa 1950s

Woman police officer attending an accident where a man appears to have fallen off a ladder. She is speaking into her hand-held radio. Date: circa 1970s

Map of British Empire showing international cable
Map of the British Empire (coloured red), showing the All-British international cable going round the world, enabling telegraphic communication. Date: circa 1902

Penny Post Jubilee card - Sir Rowland Hill - 1890
A Penny Post Jubilee card, issued in 1890 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee (50 years, 1840 - 1890) of the Penny Post. The card features a postman from 1840 and one from 1890

Mails for the Packets arriving at Falmouth, 1833 circa 1930

Pin Up on telephone by David Wright
An alluring blonde woman in a black evening dress and white fur stole talks on a red telephone while looking seductively at the viewer

Louis Braille - inventor of system of raised-point writing
Louis Braille (1809-1852) - French inventor of system of raised-point writing for the blind. Date: circa 1850

RAF Harrier Jump Jets, No. 1 Squadron, set up in 1969. The jump jet is a vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft. Seen here are staff at work in a control tower

Town crier, St Marys, Scilly Isles
The local town crier, Wilfred Tonkin, on St Mary s, Scilly Isles. Seen here announcing the fact that the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, has taken up residence in his holiday bungalow

LCC-LFB Breathing apparatus communications set
A Sub Officer from Lambeths (D61) emergency tender crew demonstrating the Southampton communications equipment that was worn with a full face mask on the Proto (oxygen) breathing apparatus set

(The Morning After of a Faun) Le Lendemain d un Faune (or, What an Afternoon ) - The Great success of the new ballet L Apres-Midi d un Faune in which the faun, failing to abduct the nymph herself

Graca & Cos stall - Hong Kong - important printers and vendors of postcards, stamps and stationary. Date: circa 1905

Stamp Card produced by Ottmar Zeihar - Iran (Persia). These cards enabled collectors to see stamps which they were unable to obtain, or afford

Poster, Anglo-Swiss Telephone Service, showing a woman skating in the Alps. 20th century

A London skyscape: the sky in Soho, 1905
The maze of telephone wires over Soho, at the Gerrard Street telephone exchange. The steeple of St Anne s, Soho, can be seen in the distance, on the otherside of Shaftesbury Avenue. Date: 1905

Phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
Phonograph. Created in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison (Milan, Ohio, 1847-West Orange, 1931). Colored engraving

Native American Indian Picture Writing (Medicine Mans Chant) of the Chippewa or Ojibbewa Indians. Date: circa 1890s

London Fire Brigades organisation and equipment
A selection of small drawings of the events that take place in 1937, when a call by a pedestrian seeing flames and smoke to the very end when the fire has been put out

HMS Monarch, British cable ship
The HMS Monarch, a British cable-laying ship. There were three cable ships of this name -- this is probably the third one, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in 1916. Date: 20th century

Blitz in London -- salvaged mail, Calthorpe Street, WW2
Blitz in London -- following the bombing of Mount Pleasant Post Office on 18 June 1943, salvaged mail was temporarily piled up in nearby Calthorpe Street. Date: 1943

Example of a woman dialling 999 for the emergency services in a red telephone booth

Invisible ink
Coded invisible ink message demonstrated by German spy Kurt H de Rysbach, 1915 Date: 1915

The Naze Tower, Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex
The Naze Tower at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. An historic landmark, it was built on the cliffs in 1721 by Trinity House as a navigation mark to guide shipping

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