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University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library

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Address:

1150 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113, USA
bentley.ref@umich.edu

Michigan Bell Telephone Company Photographs, 1949-1983

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Summary

Creator:
Michigan Bell Telephone Company.
Abstract:
Photographs (positive and negative), slides, and transparencies taken by the company's photographers to document company activities, products, services, employees at work and at leisure, company exhibits and commemorations, and the response of the company to natural disasters and civil disturbances.
Extent:
63 linear feet (in 93 boxes)
Language:
English.
Call Number:
94130 Bb.2/2
Authors:
Finding aid prepared by: Thomas E. Powers

Background

Scope and Content:

In 1993, Michigan Bell as a corporate entity was subsumed within the Ameritech Corporation. As a by-product of this reorganization and the downsizing resulting from it, the company agreed to deposit with the Bentley Historical Library its extensive archive of photographic images. Totalling approximately one million images, the Michigan Bell Telephone Company photo archive consists of negatives, copy prints, and color transparencies taken in the period since World War II (the bulk beginning in 1949). The collection does not include photos taken since 1983; interspersed throughout, however, are numerous images from before 1949.

The collection has been maintained in the order received with two principal series: Positives and Negatives.

The content of the photographs in the two series varies considerably. Naturally the collection documents the products of the company (phones and other communication devices) and the services provided (e.g. employees at work or the company reacting to a specific customer need). These photos were taken both to inform the general public as accompaniment to press notices and advertising copy and as a communications vehicle within the company, informing employees through the company news publication, Tielines, of activities going on in other divisions of the company or among the various regional Bell offices.

More importantly perhaps, the collection has value for its documentation of events and activities that are common to all large companies. These include images relating to: 1. The activities of employees within the corporation at their work (office workers, repairmen, operators, various support personnel, managers, etc.); 2. The activities of employees outside their work routine as members of corporate social groups (i.e., the company baseball or ice hockey team), at home engaged in leisure time activities, or involved in company-sponsored charitable or public service functions; and 3. Commemorations of specific milestones or events (company parade floats, area office open houses, corporate displays at public events such as fairs, etc.).

In addition, the collection documents the extraordinary and unforeseen as the phone company reacts to events and emergencies not within its control (floods, tornadoes, fires, the 1967 Detroit riot, strikes, and the like) or as a participant in history-making events (the announcement in Ann Arbor of the success of the Salk polio vaccine or the preparation involved in the 1980 Republican National Convention that convened in Detroit).

Biographical / Historical:

The photographic department of Michigan Bell Telephone Company was established to document the activities of the company and to provide images to be used in various company publications and publicity releases.

Acquisition Information:
The collection was the gift of Michigan Bell Telephone Company (now Ameritech), and came to the library in August 1993 (Donor no. 304 ).

Subjects

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Subjects:
Accidents.
Adult education.
African Americans.
Aged persons.
Agriculture.
Air defenses.
Air pollution.
Airports.
Animals.
Archives.
Artificial larynx.
Artificial satellites.
Automobiles.
Automobile industry.
Autumn.
Baseball.
Basketball.
Beauty contestants.
Bell Telephone hour (Radio program)
Blood donations.
Boats.
Bowling.
Bridges -- Michigan.
Britannia (Yacht)
Broadcasting.
Buildings.
Buildings -- Michigan -- Detroit.
Buildings -- Michigan -- Southfield.
Business and finance.
Business enterprises.
Cables.
Cadillac Building (Detroit, Mich.)
Cafeterias.
Camping.
Cathode ray tubes.
Centennial celebrations.
Chickens.
Children.
Children singing.
Children's parties.
Celebrations.
Christmas.
Christmas decorations.
Churches.
Civil defense.
Coins -- Collectors and collecting.
Community service.
Compressors.
Computers.
Confectioners.
Construction industry -- Michigan -- Detroit.
Cookery.
Country life.
Curling.
Customer relations.
Customs inspections.
DEW Line.
Diesel electric power-plants.
Dining rooms.
Disasters.
Display of merchandise.
Dolls.
Dwellings -- Michigan -- Allen Park.
Dwellings -- Michigan -- Inkster.
Engines.
Engineering.
Equipment.
Excavation.
Exhibitions.
Explosions.
Fairs -- Michigan.
Families.
Farming.
Farms.
Fashion shows.
Fiber optics.
Fire alarms.
Fires.
First aid in illness and injury.
Fishing -- Michigan.
Flint journal.
Floods.
Flowers.
Food.
Football.
4-H clubs.
Furniture.
Golf.
Grocery stores.
Handicapped persons.
Health care.
Hearing aids.
Hobbies.
Horseback riding.
Horses.
Hospitals -- Michigan -- Battle Creek.
Hotels and taverns.
Hunting -- Michigan.
Hurricanes.
Iceboating.
Ice hockey.
Janitors.
Kitchens.
Labor unions.
Laborers.
Law and legal affairs.
Law offices.
Leisure.
Lighthouses -- Michigan.
Lotteries.
Magic.
Manhole covers.
Medicine -- Michigan.
Michigan Week.
Microwave communication systems.
Military life.
Mobile communication systems.
Mobile homes.
Newspapers -- Michigan.
Nike rocket.
Nurses -- Michigan.
Occupations.
Office equipment.
Office workers.
Offices -- Michigan -- Detroit.
Parades and processions.
Photographers.
Physicians -- Michigan.
Pickets.
Pickles.
Pinsetters.
Playboy bunny.
Police -- Michigan.
Poliomyelitis vaccine.
Political conventions -- Michigan -- Detroit.
Politicians -- Michigan.
Printing industry.
Prison facilities -- Michigan -- Jackson.
Project Telstar.
Publicity.
Racquets (Game)
Radar.
Radioisotopes.
Employees -- Recruiting.
Refugees -- Michigan.
Retirement.
Riots.
Riots -- Michigan -- Detroit -- History -- 20th century.
Rockets.
Safety.
Sailboats.
Sailing.
Salt mining -- Michigan.
Schools -- Michigan.
Sculpture -- Michigan -- Detroit.
Seasons.
Ships -- Great Lakes.
Shopping centers.
Signal towers.
Singing.
Skiing.
Soap box derbies.
Soda fountains.
Solar batteries.
Sports.
Square dancing.
Stained glass.
Strikes.
Students -- Michigan.
Submarine cables.
Storms.
Swimming.
Telephones.
Telephone cables.
Table tennis.
Telephone -- Defense measures.
Telephone, Dial.
Telephone directories.
Telephone -- Employees.
Telephone lines.
Telephone -- Equipment and supplies.
Telephone operators.
Telephone etiquette.
Telephone repeaters.
Telephone switchboards.
Telephone -- History.
Telephone switching systems, Electronic.
Telephone systems.
Telephone wire.
Teletypewriters.
Television industry.
Tennis.
Traffic accidents.
Transistors.
Transportation -- Michigan.
Trees, Care of.
Tornadoes.
Turbines.
Towers.
Trucks.
Turkeys.
Uniforms.
Universities and colleges -- Michigan.
Vocational education.
Volleyball.
Voting.
Weddings.
Window displays.
Winter.
Women -- Michigan.
Athletes -- Michigan.
Women athletes -- Michigan.
World War, 1939-1945 -- War work.
Youth -- Michigan.
Formats:
Signs.
Advertisements.
Aerial photographs -- Michigan -- Detroit.
Photographs.
Paintings.
Names:
American Red Cross.
American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Bell Telephone Laboratories, inc.
Boy Scouts of America.
Chris-Craft Industries.
Cobo Hall (Detroit, Mich.)
Detroit Builder's Show.
Civic Center (Detroit, Mich.)
Detroit Historical Museum.
Detroit Institute of Arts.
Detroit Metro Airport.
Detroit News (Firm). Want Ads Dept.
Detroit Tigers (Baseball team)
Detroit Zoological Park (Mich.)
Ford Motor Company.
Fred Sanders (Firm)
General Motors Corporation.
General Motors Corporation. Buick Motor Division.
Girl Scouts of the United States of America.
Goodwill Industries of America.
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.
Horner Woolen Company.
Hyatt Regency Dearborn.
Junior Achievement.
Michigan Bell Building (Detroit, Mich.)
Michigan Bell Telephone Company.
Michigan. Constitutional Convention (1961-1962)
Michigan. National Guard.
Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
Michigan State Fair.
Michigan State Police.
Michigan State University -- Campus.
Michigan State University -- Commencement -- 1963.
National Bank of Detroit.
National Cherry Festival (Traverse City, Mich.)
Percy Jones Hospital (Battle Creek, Mich.)
Renaissance Center (Detroit, Mich.)
Republican National Convention (32nd : 1980 : Detroit, Mich.)
State Prison of Southern Michigan.
United Foundation (Detroit, Mich.)
WWJ-TV (Television station : Detroit, Mich.)
Western Electric Company.
Bald, F. Clever (Frederick Clever), 1897-1970.
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922.
Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976.
Garroway, Dave, 1913-1982.
Kappel, Frederick R., 1902-
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.
Sales, Soupy.
Thom, Robert A.
Vorhees, Donald, 1903-1989.
Places:
Allen Park (Mich.)
Ambassador Bridge (Detroit, Mich. and Windsor, Ont.)
Anchor Bay (Mich.)
Battle Creek (Mich.)
Bay City (Mich.)
Birmingham (Mich.)
Blue Water Bridge (Port Huron, Mich. and Sarnia, Ont.)
Cadillac (Mich.)
Detroit (Mich.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Detroit River (Mich. and Ont.)
Detroit (Mich.) -- Streets.
Detroit (Mich.)
Flat Rock (Mich.)
Flint (Mich.)
Fort Custer (Mich.)
Fort Wayne (Detroit, Mich.)
Frankenmuth (Mich.)
Grand Marais (Mich.)
Grand Rapids (Mich.)
Grosse Ile Naval Air Station (Mich.)
Hillsdale (Mich.)
Holland (Mich.)
Houghton (Mich.)
Hudsonville (Mich.)
Inkster (Mich.)
Ionia (Mich.)
Kalamazoo (Mich.)
Lansing (Mich.)
Lincoln Park (Mich.)
Mackinac Bridge (Mich.)
Mackinac, Straits of (Mich.)
Mackinaw City (Mich.)
Manistee (Mich.)
Marion (Mich.)
Michigan -- Capital and capitol.
Northland Shopping Center (Southfield, Mich.)
Oak Park (Mich.)
Plymouth (Mich.)
Port Huron (Mich.)
River Rouge (Mich.)
Royal Oak (Mich.)
Saginaw (Mich.)
Saint Ignace (Mich.)
Selfridge Air National Guard Base (Mich.)
Southfield (Mich.)
Standale (Mich.)
Traverse City (Mich.)
Wurtsmith Air Force Base (Mich.)
Wyandotte (Mich.)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Donor(s) have not transferred any applicable copyright to the Regents of the University of Michigan. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials.

PREFERRED CITATION:

item, folder title, box no., Michigan Bell Telephone Company Photographs, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

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Collection

Michigan Bell Telephone Company Photographs, 1949-1983
Call Number 94130 Bb.2/2
Total components 692
Last indexed 2023-12-08