Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
March 13, 1942. "Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Lounge, to window. Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith, architects." You can call me ... lonely! Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.
Or contented introvert?
[Photographer: "Please sit over there to balance the composition." -tterrace]
Do we know what the poster says?
My eyes may be deceiving me but I spy what looks like a glass ashtray under the drapes to the right of the the ladies. I am assuming there may be another if behind the man in the darker suit.
[The two trays. -tterrace]
Love the very subtle Shorpy watermark in the windows.
And I think there may be an ashtray on the table at the far left. Bet the smoker has one on the windowsill behind him.
After all, this is Bell Labs. As we watch, he is deep in thought. Inventing something. Perfecting something. Helping the war effort.
Back in those days my dad would flick his cigarette ashes into the ample cuffs of his pants. He would stub out the butt on the sole of his shoe and stash it in his cuff until he could get rid of it. This consternated my mother no end.
A room that size needs at least half a dozen ashtrays.
Looks like gray suit guy is the only one smoking, which seems a little unusual considering the era, but what's he doing with his ashes?
When I first looked at this photo, I thought it was something out of the 1960's. What an interesting choice of furniture for such a modern building.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5