One of the many AT&T assets hanging in the balance due to its acquisition by SBC is the state of the AT&T archives in Warren, N.J., “…the nation’s largest and oldest repository of corporate materials, which tell the story of modern communications,” writes The Star Ledger. “This unassuming warehouse is a geek’s treasure trove, with holdings ranging from Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 patent for the telephone to hair-thin strands of fiber-optic cable.”
Now historians and industry watchers are concerned over what may become of the archive.
“They’ll drag in the Dumpster,” A. Michael Noll, a communications professor at the University of Southern California and former scientist with AT&T’s Bell Labs in Murray Hill, told the paper. “One thing we know about mergers — the survivor has to destroy the DNA of the victim. They have to destroy that identity. You can’t have people thinking they’re still part of AT&T. They’re part of SBC.”
Read the paper’s story here, which looks at the fascinating archives and makes you want to sign a petition to save them.
Via Slashdot
