Technology and Life in Arkansas – Object #1 – Arkansas Primary Source Sets

Fort Smith Telephone Office

<p>Six female operators, dressed in white blouses and long skirts, with their hair swept up in buns, switch cables at a telephone office.</p>

Photograph of operators working in a telephone office around the turn of the 20th century.

Questions:

What do the operators have in common?
What do you think a typical day would have been like for these women?
How is communication today similar to and different from communication in this image?

Citations

Business and Industry photograph collection (UALR.PH.0003)