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Map, New York City, Lower Manhattan Pay Telephone Stations, 1896

Map of Telephone Pay-Stations Open on October 31, 1896
New York: 1896
Print with hand-typed and hand-drawn notations
44.25 x 8.75 inches
Price on Request

A rare, possibly unique map of early Telephone Pay Stations in New York City.  It is an almost four-foot-long strip cut from a larger simple street map printed in red. The strip is reduced to a section of of Broadway, in Lower Manhattan, New York City, including parts of Greenwich Village, Tribeca, and the Battery. It is modified with the addition of a typewritten manuscript title and notations marking the locations of 16 pay telephone stations as of October 31, 1896. Each location is precisely indicated with a small square drawn in manuscript ink. The 1896 date of the map is soon after the coin-operated pay station telephone was invented by William Gray in 1888 and the installation of the first station in Hartford, Connecticut in 1891 by his Gray Telephone Pay Station Company. As such this map most likely represents the locations of some of the earliest pay phones installed in New York City. The map is backed on linen and folds, as issued. It was purchased in 1998 from a collection of maps and ephemera that had continuously been handed down in a family archive that was also rich with Civil War documents and maps. As a map of early pay telephone stations it is apparently quite rare; we were unable to locate any other early maps of its type.

Product description continues below.

Description

The pay phone locations on the map are marked from 20 Fifth Avenue on the corner of 9th Street in the north to 1 Broadway at the corner of Battery Place in the south with hand-drawn black squares pinpointing their precise locations. Each is accompanied — in hand typed manuscript — by the address, the name of the building or business where it is located, and the phone number, most of which begin with “Spring” followed by a four-digit number. The intersection of Fifth Avenue and 9th Street is also hand-drawn. Washington Square, the County Court House, and Battery Park all appear on the map. The maker of the map and whom it was intended for are unknown, whether a company, government agency, or private individual.

The Gray Telephone Pay Station Company was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1891 by William Gray, inventor of the coin-operated pay telephone and was in business until 1948. The company installed the first public coin-operated telephone in 1891 inside a Hartford bank. This innovation allowed people without phones in their homes to make calls without an attendant. In the early days of the telephone, all calls were connected by operators. The earliest pay stations required payment directly to an agent who had a telephone available; these were quite rare. With Gray’s “coin-controlled apparatus” a small bell would signal the operator when a coin was deposited to come on the line and connect the call. Shortly thereafter this was replaced by a more sophisticated “signal device for telephone pay stations” developed by Gray. Over the years, Gray continued to improve his invention under additional patents. In 1898, prepay coin-operated phones were introduced and in the early 1900s the first outdoor phone booths appeared. By 1902 there were 81,000 pay telephones installed inside public buildings in the United States.

This map may be considered at once a map of Broadway in lower Manhattan, and also a specialty map of the history of technology in general and as related to the City. This is a topic of considerable contemporary interest; in 2022, an exhibition Analog City: NYC B.C. (Before Computers) was displayed at the Museum of the City of New York. Accofding to the museum: “Analog City examines the technologies that enabled the city to reach its position as the ‘capital of the world’ in an age before the speed and capacity of today’s digital technologies.” The last two pay telephone booths in the City, removed in May 2022, were displayed as part of the exhibit.

Condition: Generally very good with only light toning, wear, handling. Backed on linen, and folds, as issued.

References:

Fabry, Merrill. “Now You Know: Where was the First Public Telephone Booth?” Time Magazine. 3 August 2016. https://time.com/4425102/public-telephone-booth-history/ (10 November 2022).

Stamp, Jimmy. “The Pay Phone’s Journey From Patent to Urban Relic.” Smithsonian Magazine. 18 September 2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-and-last-pay-phone-180952727/ (10 November 2022).

Additional information

Century

20th Century