Post Office: Telegraphs, Private Companies

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0813 POST 81 Series
Held at	: British Postal Museum and Archive: The Royal Mail Archive   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/ ›
Full title	: Post Office: Telegraphs, Private Companies
Date(s)	: 1845-1905
Level of description	: Series
Extent	: 119 files
Name of creator(s)	: No further information available

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The first of the early telegraph companies was the Electric Telegraph Company, founded in 1846 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke (one of the inventors of the telegraph) and a number of City financiers. Prior to the Post Office takeover in 1870, some of the companies had already amalgamated or been taken over by competitors. For example: the Electric Telegraph Company and the International Telegraph Company merged in 1855, and the London Telegraph Company formally changed its title to London and Provincial Telegraph Company in December 1857.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

This series encompasses the surviving records of a number of early domestic and international telegraph companies which pioneered the development and growth of the public telegraph network.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Please see Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Public Record

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For general reference to the takeover of Private Telegraph Companies see POST 82. For information on the overseas aspect see POST 83.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Entry checked by Barbara Ball

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Entry checked June 2011