HINES, Minn. — The earliest telephone systems connected people, eased some of the loneliness and isolation of homesteaders who lived far from other family members, provided alarms in times of ...

Before smartphones, landline telephones were the way most people kept in touch. And until direct dialing became common, a switchboard operator's assistance was often needed to help with long-distance ...

Sharon Griggins was 17 and working for Illinois Bell as a telephone operator when she was interviewed by Studs Terkel. This is part of Working... Teenage Telephone Operator Reveals Loneliness In ...

Since the beginning of Bell’s telephone company, he had depended upon teenage boys to operate the telephone switchboards. It did not take long for Alexander Graham to realize the boys were incapable ...

She's your telephone operator," read one typical Bell Systems magazine ad.InformationOperators played a crucial function because telephone books were often inaccurate and customers could not be ...

This photo, made in 1913, shows telephone operators - known as “hello” girls - on break on the roof garden of the Rosedale Exchange building in Fort Worth. Courtesy AT&T Archives and History Center ...

A reunion of Maine switchboard operators highlights the challenges of making a phone call more than 50 years ago and what it was like to handle... Telephone operators of another era gather to ...

The operator is going off the hook for millions of customers.Starting in January, AT&T customers with digital landlines won't be able to dial 411 or 0 to reach an operator or get directory assistance.