Erma worked until the town stopped using a manual switchboard in the mid-'70s. This story is from NCPR's North Country at Work project, exploring the working lives and history of our region.

In the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators were essential intermediaries who relayed calls manually through a central switchboard connected to subscriber wires.

The first telephones were hard enough to use without the added harassment of the teenage boys who worked as the earliest switchboard operators — and who were, per PBS, notoriously rude. It was ...

Switchboard operators were once an essential part of telephone communication in the late 19th- into the early 20th century. During that time, technology wasn’t advanced enough for people to ...

They’re pulling the plug on California’s last manual telephone switchboard. A computer was being installed this week to replace Kerman Telephone’s four manual units. Rena McDonald of the ...

Direct-dial telephones came to Bloomington-Normal in the 1940s, but union fears of losing switchboard operator jobs and World War II slowed the process.

Until the 1970s, a switchboard operators' assistance was often needed for person-to-person, collect calls or to report a crime. And at a recent reunion in Maine, some former operators shared a few ...

Telephone users once kept their secrets off-line, lest the switchboard operator was listening. Now, a generation remains mute, but has its secrets stolen anyway.

Female operators at the switchboard of the Magneto Exchange The telephone transformed communications in the office, allowing white-collar offices to separate from warehouses and factories.

In the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators were essential intermediaries who relayed calls manually through a central switchboard connected to subscriber wires.