The Spirit of Service – The Switchboard Operator; The Repairman

“These murals portray the Spirit of Service. The one on the left shows the switchboard operator … at the switchboard ready to get the message through at any hour of day or night.”

“The one on the right portrays the repairman, who pushes his way into the snowbound mountains following the slender wires until he repairs the breaks and thus restores communication.”

Notes: For more on the Bell System’s “Spirit of Service,” see our biographical entry on Angus Macdonald.

Lunettes – The Eskimo and the Cowboy; The Indian and the Mexican

“These lunettes allegorically suggest the millions of people and the various types who depend on the telephone for communication. An Eskimo is seen talking with a cowboy; an Indian talks with a native of Mexico.

“The telephone has made a neighborhood of our own vast nation. It has brought into this neighborhood the nations to our North and South, and in the last few years transatlantic telephony has brought millions of Europeans into the neighborhood as well. Truly, the time is not far distant when anyone anywhere may talk with anyone else anywhere else, by telephone.”

Notes: This mural also suggests the range of the Mountain States Telephone region, reaching from the far north (the Eskimo representing Canada) to the far south (the Mexican).

(Please note that the italicized text accompanying the murals is adapted from a 1929 pamphlet put out by the telephone company to promote the murals and the building.)