5/10 from my series of 19th century photos
A group of telegraph operators in their office in the mid 1890s.
The double dial clock and the maps on the wall leads me to think this might be a railroad station. Note the "No Smoking" sign in the top left!
The flaking and silver mirroring on the edges of the image are pretty heavy, but I absolutely love the texture.
Original post for context: https://mastodon.art/@jeremyosborn/116268053719423828
5/10 detail
I definitely would want to hang out with this fella! His personality shines strong: pencil tucked behind ear, leaning back in his chair, hands tucked into his lapels, a confident smile on his face.
Being a telegraph operator in 1895 was a pretty good job, there were only 330k telephones in the US total.
It would be different in 10 years time, by 1905 there were over 6 million telephones and you didn't need to know Morse code to use them.
Jeremy Osborn