Folder: S.F. Pacific Telephone & Telegraph-Interiors.
This photo was taken on January 25, 1915 at the opening of the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The person in the front row, third from the left is Thomas A. Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell. He is, in fact, speaking with Mr. Bell, who is in New York. On the wall behind are portraits of Bell and Theodore Vail, the president of AT&T. This event took place to open the first transcontinental telephone line. Also on the call were Vail, from Jekyll Island, Ga., and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, from the White House. Others present include Hon. James Rolph, Jr. Mayor of San Francisco; Thomas B. Doolittle, a telephone pioneer; and George D. McFarland, President of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company.
