Directories (People) at the Boston Public Library: Telephone Directories
Telephone Directories have the advantage of covering beyond town and city boundaries. In the early years, however, much of the population did not have telephones. The Yellow Pages directories are essential for business research. Contact us here for availability or to check a specific place and year.
Phonebooks - current and recent
- Greater Boston Real Yellow Pages (Verizon) 2023 Includes Brookline & Cambridge and has both residential and community pages
- Greater Boston Real Yellow Pages (Verizon) 2021 Includes residential (white pages) and community pages also. Includes Brookline & Cambridge
- US phonebooks last 2 yearsSearch the most current white or yellow pages from the around the US
Boston Area Telephone Directories 2001 to 2020
Boston area telephone directories for 2001 to 2020 are held in paper format and can be requested for historical research at the Research Services Department in the Washington Room.
US Phonefiche, 1976 - 2005
From 1976 through 2005 the Bell & Howell Company (later University Microfilm International (UMI), and now Proquest) published telephone books from across the country on microfiche. The Boston Public Library purchased a broad selection of white & yellow pages. The directories are primarily from the Bell System. Guides are available for some years that indicate in which directory a town was covered, and also the towns covered by a specific directory.
- 1990-2003: sometimes include London, Montreal & Toronto
- 1981-2005: includes midsize cities
- 1976-1980: covers only the select major metropolitan areas below (by state):
- California: Los Angeles; Oakland; San Francisco
- District of Columbia: Maryland Suburban-D.C. Area; Northern VA and D.C. Area
- Illinois: Chicago
- Massachusetts: Boston
- Michigan: Detroit
- Missouri: St Louis
- New York: Babylon-Bay Shore; Bronx, Brooklyn, Huntington-Smithtown; Manhattan; Queens; Riverhead-Patchoque; Staten Island, Suffolk
- Pennsylvania: Allentown-Bethlehem (1980 only); Philadelphia
Boston Area Telephone & Address Directories on Microfilm (1884-2001)
Boston Telephone Directory, 1886-1901
New England Telephone and Telegraph Co., Official List of Subscribers of the Boston Division, also known as: Official Directory Long Distance Telephone​, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company 1886-1901
Boston Telephone Almanac & Directory Images
New England telephone history
- Alexander Graham Bell receives patent for telephone, March 7 1876 and in 1877 he established the Bell Telephone Company in Boston
- Birth place of telephone, 109 Court St., Boston Photo of building in which Alexander Graham Bell carried out his experiments in transmitting speech by electricity
- Boston, Birthplace of the Telephone : A Pictorial Map A Pictorial Map of the Down Town Area : by Ernest Dudley Chase. Designed and drawn expressly for the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company, Boston, Massachusetts: 1947. Printed in U.S.A. Copyright 1947. N.E. Tel. & Tel. Co.
- New England Museum of Telephony Operates The Telephone Museum in Ellsworth Maine.
- New Hampshire Telephone Museum Located in Warner NH. Virtual tour of museum available https://archive.org/details/New_Hampshire_Telephone_Museum
- Tracing the telephone in western Massachusetts 1877-1930, Compiled and edited by Wilson M. Clark and published in 1958.
- IEEE milestone dedication celebrates the birth of the telecommunications industry in Boston, March 10, 2006.Call Number: HE8731 .I278 2006x (In-Library use only)Publication Date: 2006Dedication ceremony was held at 135 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts, March 10, 2006.
Alexander Graham Bell in a Boston attic 130 years ago, successfully completed the first "telephone call", through a voice over wire transmission. We are here today to recognize this event that initiated a new era in communication, by presenting the IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing on the anniversary of this historic day.
Other telephone related publications
- New England Telephone Topics (1910 - 1956)New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. monthly employee publication from Boston including company news, photos, local stories, handy tips, interesting tidbits, and humor.
- Telephone Almanac, 1922 - 1960Published by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Serves as a general almanac and miscellaneous telephone history source
Library holds paper copies for 1922-1944, 1946-1956. 1960
call number PER AY81.C75T4.
Link gives some cover previews only.
- Independent telephony in New England : a history 1876 - 1976 byCall Number: HE8815.I5 (In-Library use only)Publication Date: 1976
- New England Telephone : "one hundred and ten years of service" byCall Number: HE8846.N483 O27 1993x (In-Library use only)Publication Date: 1993
Massachusetts Telephone Books online
- Gloucester district telephone directory - 1956 JulyIncludes Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester, Mass. Via Internet Archive
- Middleboro District Telephone Directory, 1943-1946Includes Carver, Duxbury, Kingston, Manomet, Marshfield, and Plymouth. Courtesy Middleborough Public Library via Internet Archive
- Pittsfield District Telephone Directory, 1933 JuneIncludes Barrington, Lenox and Stockbridge. Courtesy Lenox Historical Society via Internet Archive
Boston Telephone Exchanges - 1950
At one time instead of dialing entire telephone numbers you dialed the first two letters of the exchange, followed by 5 numbers. For example, KEnmore 6-5400 (the Boston Public Library), or PEnnslvania 6-5000 (the Glenn Miller jazz classic.). This is why telephones originally had letters.