1906-08 Pittsburgh Bell Telephone Telegraph Archive Ephemera Frank Schultz For Sale

1906-08 Pittsburgh Bell Telephone Telegraph Archive Ephemera Frank SchultzOriginal archive of early Pittsburgh-area telephone and telegraph ephemera dating primarily from approximately 1906–1908, centered on Frank Schultz of North Oakland Station No. 1, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The collection contains a substantial group of original documents from The Central District and Printing Telegraph Company, an important early Pittsburgh communications company operating Bell Telephone service, together with related correspondence, envelopes, receipts and operational paperwork.
The archive includes numerous monthly toll and messenger-service statements bearing original company markings and dated PAID handstamps; a large group of handwritten telephone/toll tickets recording calls and destinations; Central District and Printing Telegraph Company correspondence and supplementary bills; period envelopes with original postage and Pittsburgh cancellations; rural carrier receipts; and additional related correspondence. Particularly attractive pieces include an embossed 1906 Pittsburgh Press letter to the North Oakland postmaster concerning newspaper agency representation and a Santa Fe railroad envelope addressed to Schultz.
The material provides an unusually tangible record of everyday telephone operations during the formative period of commercial telephone service. Individual tickets preserve handwritten destinations, charges, dates, station information and other contemporary operating details. The recurring Schultz provenance and North Oakland Station designation give the assemblage considerably more historical coherence than a collection of unrelated telephone ephemera.
The Central District and Printing Telegraph Company was founded in Pittsburgh in 1874, initially operating a local printing-telegraph exchange before developing telephone service; historical accounts place its Pittsburgh telephone operations among the earliest in the region. Federal records from the period identify the company as operating in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, while Smithsonian collections preserve Central District material as part of the documentary history of American telecommunications.
All material pictured is included. An excellent research or display archive for collectors of early telephony, Bell System history, Pittsburgh history, postal history, communications technology, or turn-of-the-century business ephemera.
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