Artifact of the Month
Description:
Artifact of the Month: October 2017


Telephone Books and City Directories

Most people toss outdated telephone books and directories in the recycle bin and never give them a second thought. When published annually for over one hundred years, telephone books and city directories can be extremely valuable tools for historical and genealogical research. A telephone book provides an alphabetical listing of residents and businesses in any given time period. Telephone books can be used to help confirm addresses and establish rough timelines and locations for businesses and people living in an area. A city directory generally lists more information and can be helpful in locating a person between census years. It may also list a spouse and children or other family members living in the same town. Some directories even provide a person's occupation. With each passing year content grew as town expanded and telephones became more commonplace.

Ketchikan Museums maintains a robust collection of telephone books and city directories from 1910 to the present to help with research questions. Here are a few tips for deriving dating clues from old Ketchikan phone numbers. Up until the early 1950s, telephone numbers were listed by naming the exchange and the two or three digits for each connection. For example, when the Gilmore Hotel opened in 1927 its telephone number was listed as 470. In 1954, telephone numbers became four digits. That year, the Gilmore Hotel's number was 2174. The change was short-lived and in 1959, a new seven digit number system was introduced including a prefix that was frequently dropped when dialing a number. The Gilmore Hotel's number converted to CA5-2174. By 1968, following national trends, Ketchikan Public Utilities eliminated the exchange prefix and developed the standard seven digit numbering system that we still use today.

For more information on Ketchikan Museums' phone book collection, please click on the "Research Request Form" link below or call us at 907-225-5600.

Ketchikan Museums: Tongass Historical Society Collection, THS 83.1.5.24
Click to Enlarge
1920 October CLP&W Co Telephone Directory - cover1920 October CLP&W Co Telephone Directory - cover
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1920 October Clp&w Co Telephone Directory - back cover1920 October Clp&w Co Telephone Directory - back cover