The Lineman
Norman Rockwell's painting for an American Telephone and Telegraph advertisement.
Commentary: Virtually from the first days he began working on the telephone,Alexander Graham Bell conceived of it as an instrument that would provide great service to the country’s homes and businesses. From its earliest days, the Bell System placed service as its highest priority. And the annals of the business are filled with stories of telephone people performing near-heroic feats to keep telephones working well. One of those legendary feats came about in the famous blizzard of ‘88, when a lineman named Angus MacDonald donned his snowshoes and trod some 20 miles in the height of the blizzard checking on critical long-distance telephone lines. The event was later portrayed in an oil painting known simply as “Spirit of Service:’ The painting shows a shadowy figure trudging through great swirls of snow, his head lifted up into the searing cold wind as he looks at the wind-blasted telephone lines.It seemed only natural when, in later years, the Bell System decided to do an advertisement that spoke of its continuing dedication to service that Norman Rockwell be asked to portray “the immortal lineman.”Rockwell, in capturing the essence of the lineman—the hearty, selfless,dedicated individual—succeeded as only his simple, subtle style could in re-creating the spirit of service for a new generation of telephone employees and customers.
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