AT&T Ad Showing a Man Using a Highway Emergency Phone, 1971

THF103496 / AT&T Ad Showing a Man Using a Highway Emergency Phone, 1971 / front
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Artifact Overview

Some highway departments installed emergency telephones along heavily traveled routes in the 1960s. In an era before cell phones, this made calling for help a little easier -- if you didn't have to walk too far to find a phone.

Artifact Details

Artifact

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Date Made

1971

Subject Date

1971

Creator Notes

Made for AT & T (American Telephone & Telegraph)

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

2011.52.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Photomechanical processes

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 11 in
Width: 8.24 in (each page; total 16.5")

Inscriptions

Printed on right side page of ad at top: Now motorists along this solitary 95 mile stretch of / highway have someone to talk to. / Every half mile. Paragraph on right side page of ad in the middle reads in part: Interstate 80 runs through parts of Pennsylvania so / sparsely settled that bear and deer may still outnumber / people. / And interchanges are often ten miles apart. / Until recently this was no place for a stranded / motorist. / Now 370 roadside emergency telephones are helping / to make this section one of the safest highways in the state./ Each yellow call box is connected to one of the five State Police stations in the area. / ... /The American Telephone and Telegraph Company / and your local Bell Company cooperate with local, state / and Federal authorities to make the telephone serve you better. / In this case, to help make highways safer.