Switchboard Collection

Telephone Switchboard
New Scotland Yard switchboard

Switchboard Girls / 1930S
Girls working on a telephone switchboard, watched over by a stern-looking supervisor

In front and behind the scenes at the Coliseum, London
A great stage and a great curtain: in front and behind the scenes at the Coliseum, London. Top centre: a diagrammatic view of the revolving stage

A long line of telephone switchboards with female operators

London telephone exchange, WWII
Women telephone operators at a London telephone exchange with tin helmets, during World War II

Phone Exchange / 1903
The switchboard of the National Telephone Company, United Kingdom

Metropolitan Police operations room, London
View of a Metropolitan Police operations room at New Scotland Yard, London, with officers and telephonists busy taking calls

Women as electricians WWI
Women in London electric station. During World War One there seemed to be no limit to the number of civilian occupations that women showed themselves cabable of replacing men

YWCA Poster, Back our girls over there, WW1
YWCA Poster, design by Clarence F Underwood, Back our girls over there, United War Work Campaign, First World War. 1918

Port Sunlight - telephone switchboard - early 1900s

Telphone switchboard, Port Sunlight soap factory, Wirral

Air conditioning for the House of Commons by G. H. Davis
To cool the heads and warm the feet of our legislators: air-conditioning for the new House of Commons. Diagram by G. H. Davis in The Illustrated London News showing how a single switchboard operator

Central telephone exchange 1903
The post office central telephone exchange, St. Pauls Churchyard, London, England. Date: 1903

Auxiliary Fire Service switchboard through which to warn all local fire units, communicate with the A.R.P. Headquarters and keep track of air-raid damage during World War II

EDISONS TELEPHONE 1879
Edisons loud-speaking telephone. Date: 1879

Control room of Short S14 Sarafand, S1589, containing the switchboard for the electricity supply, telephones and engine instruments

The watchroom of Southwark Fire Station, London. Although this had a telephone switchboard serving the adjacent headquarters of the Brigade

Welsh Guards
One of 34 photographs associated with the Welsh Guards, 1950-1969.Showing canteen; sign-writer; carpenters; drivers; machine gunners; firing mortars; sport; welder; mess waiters

Woman police officer on the phone in a police station
Woman police officer (Maggie Coombs) on the telephone in a police station. Date: circa late 1970s

Watchroom at Fire Brigade HQ, Southwark
Watchroom at Metropolitan Fire Brigade headquarters in Southwark Bridge Road, with men manning the switchboard and monitoring the fire alarm control board where calls for assistance were received

National telephone exchange 1 January 1912
The General Post Office of the British government assumed all control of the national telephone system. Date: January 1912

Poster, The Telephone in Business, showing a female telephone operator and a map of England. 20th century

The Kings Christmas Speech, 1933
A page from The Sphere December 1933, entitled, The Kings Christmas Speech - how it will be broadcast to the world". Pictured are engineers

WW2 Christmas card, air raid
WW2 Christmas card, keeping calm in an air raid. Date: circa 1942

Chinese telephone office, San Francisco, California, USA
Chinese workers at a switchboard in the telephone office, San Francisco, California, USA. The building was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of April 1906. Date: early 20th century

Suffragette HQ Clements Inn W. S. P. U
Suffragette HQ Clements Inn W.S.P.U. Line drawing of the W.S.P.U Headquarters at Clements Inn. Showing a meeting, switchboard and typists. Date: 1912

Two men on switchboard at LFB HQ
Two men taking calls on the switchboard at LFB HQ. Date: 1925

LFB Telephone Switchboard - Lambeth HQ, SE1 Date: circa 1930s

The telephone women (1904). Picture of Le Petit
" The telephone women (1904). Picture of " Le Petit Journal". Engraving."

Queen Elizabeth II at the LFB Annual Review in Lambeth
Queen Elizabeth II at the Annual Review of the London Fire Brigade, Lambeth HQ on 11 November 1966

London Fire Brigade Headquarters telephone switchboard

London Fire Brigade telephone switchboard operator
A London Fire Brigade telephone switchboard operator

LCC-LFB Brigade headquarters station watchroom
The watchroom of Southwark Fire Station. Although this had a telephone switchboard serving the adjacent headquarters of the Brigade

LCC-MFB Firemen in switchboard & control room
Watchroom at Metropolitan Fire Brigade headquarters in Southwark Bridge Road, with men manning the switchboard and monitoring the fire alarm control board where calls for assistance were received

LCC-LFB Control Room at Lambeth HQ SE1
Brigade control was located in the basement of the Headquarters building. A view of the card index rotary drums that recorded the address of every London thoroughfare

NFS London Region control room, HQ, WW2
Firemen and firewomen of the NFS (London Region) at the telephone switchboard of the control room at Lambeth HQ

An example of an early telephone switchboard

Poster advertising War Savings, encourage people to invest in war bonds to support the ATS (the womens branch of the army, the Auxiliary Territorial Service). 1940s

New York Telephone Company Exchange Date: 1896

Metropolitan Police Information Room, London
General view of the Metropolitan Police Information Room at New Scotland Yard, London, with officers busy taking calls. In the foreground are the Inspectors and Sergeants positions. Date: May 1974

Telephone Operators
Men and women working as telephone operators. Trelleborg

NY Phone Exchange 1910
Section of a typical New York City telephone exchange : working here is evidently an exclusively female preserve Date: 1910

Police radio operator

Two Men at Work
Two men working at a telephone switchboard desk in a factory. Photograph by Heinz Zinram

Telephone-room at Southwark fire engine station
The telephone-room at Southwark Chief Fire Engine Station showing an officer operating a switchboard, connecting the station with sub-stations in other London districts

Switchboard operators wearing gas-masks
Photograph showing switchboard operators in Faraday Building, City, London, wearing special gas-masks with ear-phones and mouthpieces; a precautionary

Russia Telephone Exhange
Workers at a telephone exchange in Russia

Telephones Captured 1917
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION - Telephone Exchange captured by Revolutionary Committee troops

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