[D.C. Wash. - Telephone office - male operators standing at switchboard]

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Male operators at a Washington, D.C., telephone switchboard make this view unusual, since the photograph appears to date from about the 1890s, when most exchanges had already turned to women. Early telephone companies first hired teenage boys to work the boards, but they were often unruly, and by the 1880s employers were largely recruiting young women, who were considered more patient with customers. The photograph captures a transitional moment in the work, and the operators' standing posture shows how calls were connected by hand across rows of jacks and cords.

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