Excerpt:
Few today are aware of the role that telegraphers played in providing global communications and operating the railroad system in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These "wizards of the wire" enabled ordinary small-town people to receive news and personal messages from afar; they prevented railroad collisions and enabled trains to run on time.
For those who remember the work of the telegraph operators, the image that comes to mind is generally that of a male, since women, according to a still-common misconception, "didn't do that kind of work." Yet in 1897, B. B. Adams, editor of Railroad Gazette, could state that at railroad stations "where the business has increased enough to warrant the employment of an assistant, a young woman to do the telegraphing is frequently the first helper employed." This website provides research resources for telegraphy and women's participation in this early technical occupation, and also provides links to related sites.