I have a patron who is looking for maps showing the distribution of
telephone lines in the early 20th Century in the United States.
He has seen the map on the David Rumsey site
(www.davidrumsey.com)
which is entitled Lines and Metallic Circuit Connections and has
been told about a 1909 map entitled Lines of the Bell Telephone
Companies. Does anyone have something similar in their
collection?
While I have search OCLC and found a number of items I was surprised that
I hadn't found more frequent coverage cataloged. While I was initially
searching for U.S. level coverages, some of the items focus on regional
or state coverage instead. Some of the records were for road maps which
apparently indicated telephone and telegraph lines but I'm not sure if
the patron is actually interested in distribution at that level.
Thanks, Joanne Perry
Maps Librarian, Penn State Univ