BT’s archive makes 165 years of documents available online

The collection, recognised as being of international importance, spans 165 years. The collection, which showcases Britain's pioneering role in the development of telecommunications and the impact of the technology on society, will be freely available to the public under a Creative Commons licence to encourage sharing and the use of the material in school curricula and for research. David Hay, pictured, Head of Heritage at BT Group, said: "BT's archive documents more than a Century of the achievements of British telecommunications engineers and scientists in pushing the boundaries of communications technology. I'm constantly fascinated by the photographs and documents in the archive- it's fantastic that the public can now enjoy it so easily, using our technology and networks." The archive – created by BT, Coventry University and The National Archives – is a searchable digital resource of almost 500,000 photographs, reports and items of correspondence preserved by BT since 1846. Included is an 1877 letter from Alexander Graham Bell's agent offering Bell's telephone to the British government, correspondence between Guglielmo Marconi and the General Post Office from 1896 discussing the Italian's 'new system of telegraphy without wires, and reports from Tommy Flowers and his team on their work at the Dollis Hill research centre. For more on the archive, click here.