These documents cover the years 1877-1881, with most of the items dating from 1878. There is also an undated legal statement, possibly from the late 1880s. Most of the letters are to or from Gardiner G. Hubbard, president of the Bell Telephone Co. They relate primarily to the development and characteristics of Edison's carbon telephone and to competition between the Bell company and Western Union for control of both Edison's patents and the telephone industry. Also included is a letter by Alexander Graham Bell challenging Edison's claim to sole invention of the phonograph, along with a letter describing Bell's idea for using the phonograph as a "policeman's rattle" to call out an alarm in a human voice. Other correspondents include Edison; longtime Edison associates Edward H. Johnson and Uriah H. Painter; telephone executives George L. Bradley, Thomas Sanders, and Thomas A. Watson; and James J. Storrow, patent attorney for the Bell company.

Courtesy of the AT&T Archives and History Center.