Title
England-made cradle telephone
Year/Period
1920s-1950s
Region
England and Singapore
Object Type
telephones
Dimension
Object size: L20.8 x W16.0 x H16.3 cm
Accession No.
1999-02974
Collection of
NLB Type
Cultural artefact
The first cradle handset telephone was introduced around 1926. Initially made of metal, plastic telephones were later made in the 1940s. The growth in popularity of the “cradle” model coincided with the popularity of the telephone among American teenagers in the 1950s. They could communicate with each other even when curfews were imposed on them, as reflected in popular novels and plays such as J. D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ written in 1951 and the musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie’.
