Finding Aid to the Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection, circa 1900-1956 Finding Aid to the Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection, circa 1900-1956. North Jersey History and Genealogy Center
The Morristown and Morris Township Library One Miller Road Morristown, NJ 07960
Overview of Collection Joseph Edward Wiltrakis H3H5 MSS Kear Western <title render="bold">Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection, <title render="italic">circa 1900-1956. .5 linear feet in 1 manuscript box Brief history of Western Electric and the telecommunications industry in New Jersey

In 1872, the Chicago telegraphic instrument manufacturing firm of Gray and Barton changed its name to the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Purchased in 1881 by the American Bell Telephone Company, its name was then shortened to the Western Electric Company. By 1885 the American Bell Telephone Company had formed another subsidiary company, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT and T). After a 1899 reorganization AT and T acquired the assets of American Bell Telephone, becoming the new parent of the Bell System. By the turn of the century the company had grown from a work force of about 50 in 1870 to more than 5,000 employees.

By the 1920's, as a subsidiary company to its Bell parent, Western Electric had opened a plant in Kearny, New Jersey and was supplying 90% of all telephone equipment in the United States. Although both Western Electric and AT and T suffered through the early 20th century disruptions of two world wars and the Depression, AT and T grew to be a worldwide presence between the 1950's to the 1970's. When AT and T was ordered to break-up by the Federal Communications Commission in 1984, Western Electric ceased operation under its old name, becoming instead, AT and T Technologies. In the mid 1990's, AT and T first joined with Bell Labs to become Lucent Technologies, then merged with a French telecommunications company in 2006 to become Alcatel-Lucent.

General Sources:

Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000). Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 2005.

Milestones in AT and T History at http://www.corp.att.com/history/milestones.html. Accessed December 28, 2009.

 Scope and Content of the Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection

The collection contains a newsletter, a piece of cable, a tie clip, keys and a commemorative building from a 1956 conference.

Arrangement of the Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection

The seven item collection is contained within one manusript box.

Important Information for Users of the Collection

These records are open to researchers. Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the North Jersey History Center researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. Documentary material in the Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection, may be photocopied, but because this material is a permanent part of the History Center's collections, researchers are advised to make reproductions with care, using only the edge copier for bound material.

 Preferred Citation

Western Electric and Bell Telephone artifacts collection, circa 1900-1956. North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library.

 Processing Information

Finding Aid arranged, described and encoded by North Jersey History and Genealogy Center Archivist, Fall 2009.

 Container List 1 1 Newsletter: The Kearnygram volume 17 number 9, December 1943. 1 - Cable: piece of [first] transatlantic cable, circa 1868-1900. 1 - Commemmorative building, 1956 Interplant Engineering Conference Hawthorne [New Jersey], 1956. 1 - Tie clip: a Bell telephone, not dated. 1 - Keys [3]: to the office door of J.E. Wiltrakis at Western Electric Company in Kearny, New Jersey, not dated.