Instructions for use
Select an object to view from the list below. To rotate either click on the rotate icon located in the bottom right hand corner of the image or click and drag within the object window.
Experimental notebook, 1896 - 1897
Early telephone directory
Post Office Telephones advertising material, 1930s
Phonecards, 1990s
National Telephone Company Midland province, staff dinner programme
Liverpool scrapbook
Model vans
Photograph albums, 1911 and 1932
London telephone directories
Bell's Telephone, edited by Kate Field
Victorian marketing
Shareholder register
These directories, produced by the National Telephone Company and the General Post Office between the 1890s and the 1930s, demonstrate how the telephone companies quickly realised the directories could offer an opportunity to carry advertisements, as well as list telephone numbers.
By the 1930s, two directories were produced each year for every area, reflecting the wider access to the telephone service as its cost fell.