The BT Archives is an

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

preserving the documentary heritage of the British telecoms company BT and its

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, inf ...

predecessors. It is designated an official place of deposit for Public Records, for those records created prior to BT's privatisation in 1984. The records include minutes, subject files, photographs, film and advertising material that tell the story of

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

in the UK and from the UK to overseas, from the formation of the private

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

and

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

companies in the nineteenth century to the present day.

Major historical collections

The earliest records held by BT Archives are those of the

Electric Telegraph Company The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...

from 1846. Other private telegraph companies whose records are held are the British

International Telegraph Company The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...

Submarine Telegraph Company The Submarine Telegraph Company was a British company which laid and operated submarine telegraph cables. Jacob and John Watkins Brett formed the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company to lay the first cable across the English Channel. An u ...

Electric and International Telegraph Company The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...

British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company The British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company (also called the Magnetic Telegraph Company or the Magnetic) was founded by John Brett in 1850. The Magnetic was the principal competitor to the largest telegraph company in the United Kingdom, ...

, London District Telegraph Company, United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company,

Universal Private Telegraph Company The Universal Private Telegraph Company, Limited was formed in 1861 to exploit Professor Charles Wheatstone’s 1858 ''Universal Telegraph''. The company was meant to "carry out a system by which banks, merchants, public bodies and other parties ma ...

, Eastern Telegraph Company, British Telegraph Company, Irish Submarine Telegraph Company,

English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and the

Anglo-American Telegraph Company The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed on 6 November 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link. History Cyrus Field, American businessman and financ ...

. BT Archives also holds documents relating to the UK telegraph service of the British

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

; the private companies being brought under the control of the Post Office in 1870. BT Archives also holds records of the private telephone companies and of the Post Office telephone services. The private telephone companies represented are the

Telephone Company Limited (Bell's Patents) A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into ele ...

, Edison Telephone Company of London Limited,

United Telephone Company United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

Lancashire and Cheshire Telephonic Exchange Company Limited Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashir ...

Northern District Telephone Company Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

National Telephone Company The National Telephone Company (NTC) was a British telephone company from 1881 until 1911 which brought together smaller local companies in the early years of the telephone. Under the Telephone Transfer Act 1911 it was taken over by the General P ...

Western Counties and South Wales Telephone Company Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

, Corporation of Glasgow Telephone Department and

London and Globe Telephone Maintenance Company London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Post Office Telecommunications Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a separate department of the UK Post Office, in October 1969. The Post Office Act 1969 was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run a range of services, ...

activities continue concurrently and subsequently to the private telegraph and telephone companies. These are documented in the records of the Post Office telegraph and telephone service 1864-1969 and the Post Office Corporation (Telecommunications division) 1969-1981. From 1 October 1981, British Telecommunications, trading as British Telecom, severed its links with the Post Office and became a totally separate public corporation. Records of British Telecommunications (public corporation) are held from 1981 until privatisation in 1984. Records after privatisation, of British Telecommunications plc 1984-2001, and of BT Group plc from 2001, continue to be preserved and made available for researchers in line with BT's heritage policy. The British Phone Book collection is a major resource for

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

and

family history Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

, containing a near-complete set of

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

telephone directories A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization tha ...

from the first one issued in 1880. For preservation reasons the phone books are generally accessed on

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...

, and the phone books 1880-1984 are digitised and have been made available online. BT Archives cares for more than 500,000 images and 1,000 film titles. Selected images can be found on BT Archives online image gallery.

Location and access

BT Archives is based in Holborn Telephone Exchange in the

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its root ...

area of central

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and is open, by appointment, to public researchers on Mondays and Tuesday from 10:00am – 4:00pm. There is no access charge. Holborn was the first public automatic exchange in London in 1927, see

Director telephone system The director telephone system was a development of the Strowger or step-by-step (SXS) switching system used in London and five other large cities in the UK from the 1920s to the 1980s. A large proportion (c. 70% to 80%) of telephone traffic in ...

. Descriptions of the historic collections are available on the BT Archives online catalogue. Full access, acquisition and preservation policies can be found on th
BT Archives website

Partnerships and governance

It is a partner in the

Connected Earth Connected Earth is a UK network of organizations, primarily museums, that preserve the history of telecommunications in the UK. Heritage artifacts are physically dispersed to Connected Earth partners and other institutions as appropriate, and ar ...

network, the heritage initiative founded by BT in 2001 to safeguard telecommunications artefacts. BT Archives and Connected Earth together form BT Heritage, part of BT's

corporate responsibility Corporate responsibility is a term which has come to characterize a family of professional disciplines intended to help a corporation stay competitive by maintaining accountability to its four main stakeholder groups: customers, employees, shareh ...

programme.

External links

BT Archives official site

BT Archives online catalogue

BT Archives online image gallery

BT's heritage policy

Connected Earth website

Searchable records from BT Archives phone booksDistant Writing
- The History of the Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868 {{Authority control Archives in the London Borough of Camden BT Group Business and industry archives History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom Online archives of the United Kingdom Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Photo archives in the United Kingdom

Major historical collections

Location and access

Partnerships and governance

See also

External links