BT Heritage and Archives
BT Archives preserves the historical information of British Telecommunications plc and its predecessors from the early part of the nineteenth century up to the present day, effectively the history of telecommunications services in the United Kingdom and from the UK to overseas. Records produced before the date of privatisation are classed as public records under the Public Records Acts, 1958 and 1967. BT Archives undertakes the company's statutory responsibilities under these acts to preserve and make available public records to members of the public after 30 years, and for this purpose has been appointed an "official place of deposit for public records" by the Lord Chancellor.
BT Archives also acts as the corporate memory for the BT Group of companies; vital historical information is preserved and made available where appropriate.
Venue Type:
Archive
Additional info
BT Archives cannot undertake research on behalf of customers. Customers are encouraged to visit the Archives in person to make use of our well-equipped facilities to further their project.
Historical telephone directories: Near complete set of telephone directories for the whole country produced not only by BT, but also by its predecessors including Post Office Telecommunications, the National Telephone Company and other private companies. Dating back to 1880, the year after the public telephone service was introduced into Great Britain, they are of particular interest to family historians.
Post Office collections: Historical records of the telecommunications function of the Post Office and its predecessors transferred from the Post Office Archives. These papers document the development of the telegraph and telephone services up to 1980, and include records of preceding private telegraph and telephone companies taken over by the Post Office dating back to the early part of the 19th century. Finding aids to these records can now be searched over the Internet by means of the Public Record Office online catalogue at http://www.pro.gov.uk/catalogues/default.htm . Follow the instructions on screen, or contact BT Archives for further information.
Visual Materials Library: The historical photographic, video and film collections of BT and Post Office Telecommunications dating back to the last century. A fascinating body of records which includes not just images of old equipment, but views of engineers and telephone operators at work, old vehicles, street furniture and scenes and so forth, including many local views. Copy films, photographic prints and scanned images can be supplied to order, subject to copyright restrictions.
Other collections: A growing body of historical telecommunications material donated from within BT and by a variety of external sources. Together with the other collections they form a comprehensive resource for the study of the development of domestic and international telecommunications services and, in some cases, the internal operation of early colonial and commonwealth services.
BT's heritage artefacts are managed by Connected Earth, a partnership of eleven organisations responsible for telecommunications heritage. The collections are brought together online at www.connected-earth.com and subjects are brought to life through online galleries, educational resources and People's Connected Earth where people can add their own memories and pictures concerning the history of communications, www.connected-earth.com/memories.
Collection details
Archives, Science and Technology, Social History
Key artists and exhibits
- Telephone directories dating back to 1880.
- Historical records of the telecommunications function of the Post Office and its predecessors.
- The historical photographic, video and film collections of BT and Post Office Telecommunications.
- People's Connected Earth - an online collection of your memories and photographs relating to the history of communications, www.connected-earth.com/memories
Connected Earth: History of the Internet podcasts (History KS 3 - Unit 1 'What's it all about?')
http://www.connected-earth.com/internethistory
Through a series of podcasts on the history of the Internet students are introduced to the key issues in studying history. The feature-packed Podcast is intended to stimulate interest into further research and discussion on the history of the Internet and its development. The Timeline will help students to improve their understanding of chronology and the way one event can pave the way for another. A range of suggested activities, designed to compliment the learning, offer students a fun and interactive way of engaging in this fascinating topic. One particular activity invites students to create their communications vision of the future.
Creator
- Connected Earth
Publisher
- Connected Earth
How to obtain
Free online resource at www.connected-earth.com/internethistory
Connected Earth: How has life in Britain changed since 1948? (History KS 2, Unit 13)
Our free, teaching resource supporting QCA module 13 for key stage two history contains new and exclusive activities which can be used online or independently: Text a telegram, Voices from history, and the Web quest.
The lesson support material contains facts and resources to help plan lessons including timelines, summaries of changes for work, home, popular culture, population and technology and activity support sheets.
Available at www.connected-earth.com/learning
Creator
- Connected Earth and BT Archives
How it works
http://www.connected-earth.com/learning
See inside and find out how communications technology works: the telegraph, telephone, wireless and personal computer.
Creator
- Connected Earth
Publisher
- Connected Earth
How to obtain
Free - available online at www.connected-earth.com/learning
BT Heritage and Archives
Holborn Telephone Exchange
268-270 High Holborn
London
Greater London
WC1V 7EE
England
Website
Information on the documents, images and films held by BT Archives and how to access them.
An interactive online research resource and archive catalogue providing access to the digitised collections from 1846 and spanning almost half a million photographs, reports and items of correspondence preserved by BT over the past 167 years.
http://www.bt.com/btdigitalarchives
Search descriptions of our documents, photographs, films and objects
http://www.bt.com/archivesonline
The history of telecommunications through galleries and collections and information on Connected Earth partner museums and institutions
http://www.connected-earth.com
Education resources for teachers, parents, children and young people including 'How it works'
http://www.connected-earth.com/learning
Telephone
Historical enquiries
Fax
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