Any telephone company employee worth their salt will recognize the painting on the wall as that of lineman Angus Macdonald, who bravely preserved the newly opened long-distance line between Boston and New York during a bitter storm in 1888. Prints were displayed in communications offices everywhere to remind employees of their responsibilities.

If you blow the photo up to the original size, it appears, quite convincingly, that the woman on the left can easily see the writing on the blackboard.

Interesting to see that nobody noticed that the first girls on the left are unable to read what is written on the board. All the girls were disposed on a quadrant... just for the photographer!

Do they still teach girls posture? We were taught how to sit like this, paying attention to our posture, our feet and legs, and even our shoulders and hands. Of course, we had to wear dresses in most circumstances too. It makes a girl/woman look poised, even if she doesn't feel that way.

I noticed all of the girls are crossing (or not crossing) their legs like a proper lady, not with one knee over the other like we do today.

I don't know what he said, but I wish I'd thought of it first!

I can't help but wonder why these girls were having so much fun. I wouldn't blame the young man if he became self-conscious and lost his train of thought...

Mr. Graham's addresses check out:
1415 Chapin St NW is an apartment building.
1460 F St W, the billing address, is the Willard Intercontinental Hotel

Wowsa, knees! I had no idea women had those in that era.

It appears to be a large version of a subscriber information card. Imagine all the work, every month, to create a bill for each customer by reading the information contained on the card, copying it to another sheet of paper, and mailing it out. It's no wonder that the Bell System was instrumental in the creation of automated billing.