{"id":3303,"date":"2012-12-10T17:43:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T17:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2012-12-10T17:46:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T17:46:43","slug":"through-the-lens-of-an-anthropologist-the-yellow-pages-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2012\/12\/10\/through-the-lens-of-an-anthropologist-the-yellow-pages-dress\/","title":{"rendered":"Through the Lens of an Anthropologist: The Yellow Pages Dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carey MacDonald is an undergraduate Anthropology major and writing intern.\u00a0 In her blog series <\/strong><\/em>Through the Lens of an Anthropologist<\/strong>, Carey analyzes artifacts found in the collections of Archives and Special Collections.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What began in January 1878 as George Coy\u2019s and Morris Tyler\u2019s New Haven District Telephone Company serving a mere 21 customers in New Haven, Connecticut, ultimately became the Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET)<\/strong> serving millions of customers by 1970.\u00a0 SNET was a leading force in the evolution of modern communication systems.\u00a0 Interestingly though, it was also a leading force in creating a profound sense of pride and loyalty among its employees.\u00a0 What is most intriguing is how SNET achieved this.<\/p>\n

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Yellow Pages Dress<\/p><\/div>\n

The \u2018Yellow Pages Dress,\u2019 found within the SNET Company Records<\/a>, was a promotional item for the company\u2019s Ecology Program that began gaining ground in 1968.\u00a0 A second dress made of yellow pages is found in another grouping of SNET-related items known as the SNET Collection<\/a>.\u00a0 According to Laura Smith, Curator for Business, Railroad, and Labor Collections, when the second dress was donated in 2010 by Mr. Joseph Kennedy, a former SNET employee from 1948 to 1978, it was not cited as an Ecology Program promotional item like the first dress was.\u00a0 However, despite this terminological difference, it is apparent that both dresses stem from the same period of the company\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Both dresses are literally made of yellow pages paper \u2013 advertisements and all \u2013 which was recycled from old telephone directories, treated, and sewn together into a shift dress shape.\u00a0 The dresses were made by the Waste Basket Boutique by Mars of Asheville, North Carolina, and some of the other dresses made by the Boutique are also found in the archives of the University of North Carolina Asheville.<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, Laura Smith says that it is most likely that these dresses were not actually meant to be worn, but were instead given to employees as pieces of company memorabilia – as representations of the SNET institution as a whole.<\/p>\n

Smith says that although both dresses show some slight tearing, they do not appear to have been worn habitually, or even just occasionally, by anyone, further suggesting that their purpose was simply to evoke employees\u2019 loyalty to and pride in the SNET Company.\u00a0 At a time when unionizing was very common, it was especially important for SNET to keep its employees content.\u00a0 By organizing such events as sports games and by distributing such things as these yellow pages dresses, for example, SNET could maintain the structure of its business and avoid potential dissent among its employees.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the dresses, particularly the one explicitly named as a promotional item for the Ecology Program, helped to foster company cohesion by forming a unifying environmental awareness among employees.\u00a0 This awareness, in turn, helped SNET develop ecological policies aimed at making a greener Connecticut, as seen in the SNET Company Records collection.<\/p>\n

For instance, in the early 1970s, SNET Company President Alfred Van Sinderen enlisted former Connecticut Governor John N. Dempsey to act as an environmental consultant on the potential ecological issues of SNET operations.\u00a0 Upon spending months in the field observing SNET Company operations, Dempsey wrote his 1977 report, \u201cImpact.\u201d\u00a0 In it he declares that SNET employees would no doubt accept and support the Ecology Program as some employees freely articulated their sincere concern for the environment.\u00a0 Dempsey also discusses the need for people in the higher-ranking managerial positions of the company to effect the actual implementation and maintenance of such a program.\u00a0 Such things as the company dispersal of the 1977 Employee Education handbook, which contains tips for employees on how to be \u201cgreen\u201d and environmentally sound, worked to create an ecological consciousness within the company.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it appears that SNET developed the yellow pages dresses as part of a 1960s-1970s campaign to gain employees\u2019 dedication to the company as a whole.\u00a0 It also appears that since one of these dresses was made particularly for the Ecology Program, it was part of the same campaign to unite employees under a company-wide environmental consciousness.\u00a0 Undoubtedly, the socially unifying and ecologically perceptive policies of Southern New England Telephone are utterly fascinating.\u00a0 This artifact study looks at the SNET Company as a microcosm of the larger social world in that it demonstrates just how people initiate and contribute to a socially bonding experience or movement.\u00a0 We can only hope, though, that those who initiate such a unifying movement do it for noble reasons and do it well.<\/p>\n

Carey MacDonald, writing intern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carey MacDonald is an undergraduate Anthropology major and writing intern.\u00a0 In her blog series Through the Lens of an Anthropologist, Carey analyzes artifacts found in the collections of Archives and Special Collections. What began in January 1878 as George Coy\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3309,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}