We have several Picturephones in our collection. At our museum visitors will be able to experience two different types of working Picturephones. A single Model I from 1964, introduced at the New York World’s Fair. The public was invited to place calls between special exhibits at Disneyland CA and New York. A pair of the 1969 Model II provides the opportunity to have a face-to-face experience. The collection includes a 1959 Picturephone concept model and several later models from the 1990s. Our display also includes an early 1970s video of the debut of the Picturephone Model II.
The Bell System’s Picturephone was ahead of its time. It helped pave the way to future developments like video conferencing, the internet, Skype, and Facetime.
Below is a collection of 8″ x 10″ photos of Picturephones from our museum library.
Picturephone / Video Phone –
Text on the front of the photo, “VIDEOPHONE — The telephone of the future may well be a videophone that enables customers to see each other while talking. But even it won’t permit the kind of magic enjoyed by Western Electric’s Karen Clifford as she seemingly looks into the past and chats with Dottie Patrowicz, representing milady of 1897.
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the back of the photo, “64-108; One of many pictures in the report is that of equipment for the see-while-you-talk service now under experiment and test at Bell Telephone Laboratories. The time when such service may be introduced will depend on cost factors and market demand as well as on further technical development. Demonstrations of an experimental system will be made at the Bell System exhibit at the World ‘s Fair.”
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the back of the photo, “64-329; For the best picture, the speaker should sit about three feet from t he picture screen. At this distance, the full face will appear on the distant screen.”
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the front of the photo, “SWITCHING POINT — Western Electric installer Al Edmondston monitors a Picturephone call at Long Lines switching center in New York, where W. E. equipment switches Picturephone calls for Chicago, Washington and New York .
Picturephone Model 1, 1964
Text on the front of the photo, “64-477; Participating in the first call from the Prudential Building in Chicago to the PICTUREPHONE center in Grand Central Terminal, New York, are: Laura Rabinowitz, 15, a student at New York’s Lexington
School for the Deaf, and Howard Mann, a 13-year old student at the Alexander Graham Bell School in Chicago. The two deaf students communicated by lip reading.”
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the back of the photo, “Chicago Sun-Times, Seated besides his mother, Mrs. Helen Mann in the Prudential Building lobby, Howard Mann, 13, conducts a Picturephone conversation with New York teen-ager, Laura Rabinowitz. (Sun-Times Photos by Ralph M. Walter), June 24, 1964”
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the back of the photo, “64-473; Laura Rabinowitz, a 15-year-old deaf student at New York’s Lexington School for the Deaf, and Howard Mann, 14, (on screen), communicate by lip reading during the first PICTUREPHONE call from Chicago to New York on June 24. Seated around Laura Rabinowitz (counter clockwise): her mother, Mrs. Abraham Rabinowitz; George J. Carmichael, vice president–public relations for the New York Telephone Company; and her father. Laura was at the Bell System’s PICTUREPHONE center in Grand Central Terminal, New York, and Howard, a student at the Alexander Graham Bell School in Chicago, was at the Prudential Building in Chicago.”
Picturephone Model 1, 1965
Text on the front of the photo, “TOMORROW’S PHONE? — One of the Bell System’s Picturephones is assembled by Linda McKnight in Western Electric’s Indianapolis Model Shop for telephone company tryout and demonstration
purposes
PHOTO #F-45 — WESTERN ELECTRIC NEWS FEATURES — February 1965” 65-986
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the front of the photo, “HAT CHECK – – Western Electric’s Maryalice Ives uses “self-view” feature of Picturephone to check her appearance and position on the screen . PHOTO #E-243 – – WESTERN ELECTRIC NEWS FEATURES — SEPTEMBER 1964″
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the back of the photo, “64-475; Chief participants in the first PICTUREPHONE call from New York’s Grand Central Terminal to the National
Geographic Society Building in Washington, D. C. are Charles Austin Winternitz, 15, (second from right) the great-grandson of Thomas A. Watson and 12-year-old
Edwin Stuart Grosvenor (on screen), the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. Seated with the Winternitz boy are (from left): his father, Thomas W. Winternitz (who heads the radar systems department at Bell Laboratories); Benjamin Cheever, also a great-grandson of Thomas Watson; and George J. Carmichael, vice president–public relations for the New York Telephone Company.”
Picturephone Model 1, 1965 –
Text on the back of the photo, “64-484; CAPTIONS PICTUREPHONE SERVICE BEGINS June, 1964 News and Features Photographs (COPY) From Washington, D.C. Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson speaks with Dr. Elizabeth A. Wood, Bell Telephone Laboratories scientist, who is in New York’s Grand Central Terminal during the first call over the Bell System’s PICTUREPHONE service on June 24. With the First Lady at the PICTUREPHONE center in the National Geographic Society
Building are: James B. Morrision (left), president of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Companies, and Melville Bell Grosvenor, president of t he National Geographic Society,a director of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company and a grandson of Alexander Graham Bell.
(Note to Bell System Editors : This photograph of Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson should not be used for any advertising purposes without specific clearances.
Request for such clearances should be made to C. E. Dynes, public relations manager in ATandT’ s Washington Office. Mr. Dynes may be reached on Area Code 202 393-5157,)”
Picturephone Model 1, 1965 –
Text on the back of the photo, “66-429; We believe they (integrated circuits) will
be widely used in future communications systems. Systems that will make possible, for example, regular Picturephone service all over the country. Systems that will enable people, no matter where they are located, to share the use of computers reached over a nationwide switched network.”
Picturephone Model 1, 1965 –
Text on the front of the photo, “Cathy Crosby, 5/9/65”
Picturephone Model 1, 1964 –
Text on the back of the photo, “64-328”
Picturephone Model 1, 1965
Text on the back of the photo, “Illinois Bell Telephone Photo C–1459; Sun Times Nov 28 1965; Mrs. Fre Mayer and Cole Keyes of Hinsdale real estate firm use new Picturephone to show New Yersey couple pictures of houses for sale in area which they were moving.”
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Text on the front of the photo, “CAMERA TUBE for a telephone that sees is tested by John DeWald of Western Electric’s Reading, Pa. plant. It is part of the Model II Picturephone® set which includes a super – sensitive silicon target camera tube developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories. The Bell System hopes to introduce Picturephone® service on a limited basis in the 197O’s.
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Text on the back of the photo, “67-934 A.T.and T. CO. PHOTO CENTER. The Bell System’s new Model II PICTUREPHONE set can be used to transmit drawings or charts by setting the camera focus at one foot. In the photograph, the “self-view” option is being used to position the graph while it is being transmitted.” Note the early style 72A Control Unit.
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Text on the back of the photo, “The electronic zoom feature of the Bell System’s Model II PICTUREPHONE® set enables the user to enlarge the field of view of the camera simply by turning a knob on the
control unit. A camera iris automatically adjusts the lens aperture to compensate for any change in light intensity between the two scenes.
PHOTO Bell Telephone Laboratories – Murray Hill, New Jersey 07971” Note the early style 72A Control Unit.
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Text on the back of the photo, “The electronic zoom feature of the Bell System’s Model II PICTUREPHONE® set enables the user to enlarge the field of view of the camera simply by turning a knob on the
control unit. A camera iris automatically adjusts the lens aperture to compensate for any change in light intensity between the two scenes.
PHOTO Bell Telephone Laboratories – Murray Hill, New Jersey 07971” Note the early style 72A Control Unit.
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Note the early style 72A Control Unit.
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Text on the front of the photo, “(PG-l) PITTSBURGH, Feb. 5—TESTING THE PICTUREPHONE—Westinghouse Electric Corp. president (D.C. Burnham) is pictured while using Bell Telephone Co.’s new picturephone from his Pittsburgh office.
He is conversing with and seeing members of his staff in the company’s New York office. Westinghouse has installed some 40 units of the new device on a testing basis Telephone officials say a commercial service is only a year or two away.(APWirephoto)(jsj41115atf) 1969” Note the early style 72A Control Unit.
Picturephone Model II, 1969 –
Text on the front of the photo, “VERY MOD! The lass is Toni Thomas, and she’s displaying a telephone that sees. It is now being manufactured for the Bell System by Western Electric. Called the Model II Picturephone®, it can transmit a picture from an almost dark room. This is because Bell Telephone Laboratories has developed a super-sensitive silicon target camera tube. The Bell System hopes to introduce Picturephone® service on a limited basis in the l970’s.
Picturephone Model II, 1971 –
Text on the back of the photo, “SCREEN TEST ·· F.J. Bogart of Bell Laboratories 850A PBX Group at Denver, Colorado, tests the conferencing capabilities of a new call switching machine for PICTUREPHONE® service. The 850A private branch exchange (the racks of plug-in circuit packs on the right) will handle up to 89 PICTUREPHONE lines per business customer location. The PBX also may be used for PICTUREPHONE intercom networks.
Picturephone Model II, 1971 –
Text on the front of the photo, “SECRETARIES ON CAMERA — Mrs. Patricia Brand (right) and Miss Eleanor Welsh of Western Electric Co. show how an attendant would handle a PICTUREPHONE® call using a new switching machine designed by Bell Laboratories engineers at Denver, Colorado. The 850A PICTUREPHONE PBX, installed in another room, will service up to 89 PICTUREPHONE lines per business customer location. It also may be used for video intercom networks.
Picturephone Model II, 1971 –
Text on the back of the photo, “Jenny Grimm and Bob Kennedy, co-hosts of Channel 7’s morning “Kennedy & Co.” program, use Ill. Bell Telephone’s new Picturephone to talk with Newton Minow, former FCC Chairman.
Picturephone units have been installed in three downtown Chicago locations, where passers-by will be able to dial the show and talk with Bob and Jenny and their guests. For the first time in history, the TV people will be able to see the viewers. WLS-TV”
Picturephone Model II, 1970 –
Text on the back of the photo, “Picturephone sets come rolling along conveyor belt toward final packaging at Western Electric’s Indianapolis plant. Most of Western Electric’s 19 plants funnel parts to Indianapolis for final assembly. A.T. & T. Photo Center, Room 401, 70-470”
Picturephone Model II, 1970 –
Text on the front of the photo, “The intricacy of a PICTUREPHONE® set is revealed in its map-like circuit board, here undergoing testing after assembly at Western Electric’s Indianapolis plant. The set is assembled from some 1200 parts funneled to Indianapolis by most of Western’s 19 plants in preparation for the inaugural of PICTUREPHONE service on July 1 in Pittsburgh by the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania.”