Whereas: Stories from the People’s House

Out with the Old

No matter how cutting edge they are when new, over time, even the shiniest gadgets become outmoded. In their quest to communicate with constituents, speed up work, and keep accurate records, House Members and staff have moved toward ever-newer tools of technology, leaving obsolete versions behind. Explore a selection of archaic office tools from around the House of Representatives, now preserved in the House Collection.

Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder

This reel-to-reel Wollensak tape recorder was used by Michigan Representative John Conyers Jr. during the 1960s. Although heavy, recorders like the 21-pound Wollensak were portable enough for Members to haul between Washington and their districts.

Through the decades, audio recording machines shrank. For example, a circa 1985 microcassette recorder and a digital voice recorder from around 2005, also used by Conyers’s office, were small enough to fit in the hand.

Rotary Telephone

For more than half a century, telephone calls in and out of the Capitol were routed by telephone operators. Instead of entering phone numbers, callers picked up the phone and asked an operator to connect them to the right person. But as phone calls slammed the switchboard, Congress adopted a new system of dial telephones in 1957.

Dial technology enabled staff to enter a number and connect their own calls. Rotary dial phones like this one, featuring a House of Representatives seal in the center, appeared throughout the House in the 1960s.

Yet newer advances waited just around the corner: the touch-tone phone, also known as the push button, was first introduced in 1963. By the late 1970s, Member offices started installing touch-tone phones.

Portable Typewriter

This Brother Activator 800T typewriter dates from around 1979. It was used in the office of Florida Representative Bill McCollum, who served in the House from 1981 to 2001. Like the Wollensak reel-to-reel, this piece was portable yet hefty. Popularized a century earlier, typewriters helped to standardize business practices.

But by the 1970s, other typing technology had taken up yet more space on desks. At the same time that House staffers used this typewriter, computers could already be spotted in most congressional offices.

Portable Computer

Produced around the same time as McCollum’s portable Brother typewriter, the Epson HX-20 was the first handheld computer. Like the Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder, this computer was used in Conyers’s office. Although it might seem clunky today, the device was slightly larger than a piece of letter-sized paper, and incorporated a keyboard, microcassette drive, and a miniscule screen. At three-and-a-half pounds, the computer was easy to carry and came with a plastic carrying case. The HX-20 owner’s manual touted the processor’s clock and ability to print.

By the late 1980s, House offices used computers for more than telling time and making lists. The latest machines provided access to legislative data, news, statistics, scheduling, constituent casework, and email.

Member’s Pager

With hundreds of Representatives around the Capitol campus, keeping Members informed about proceedings on the House Floor is crucial. Starting in the late 1800s, the House installed a system of bells and lights that flashed and buzzed with the status of activity on the floor.

At the turn of the millennium, pagers, like this model manufactured by TTI, functioned as a wireless legislative signal system. Party leaders paged Members to alert them that they were needed on the House Floor for a vote.

By the millennium, though, BlackBerrys—and later smartphones—began to supersede the clip-on pagers as a quick and wearable communication device.

BlackBerry

In the early 2000s, Members and staff used BlackBerrys to access their email on the go. This model, the BlackBerry 957 Wireless Handheld, provided emails quickly but did not include a phone line like future smartphones.

Describing the lunch scene in the Longworth Cafeteria, the New York Times observed: “young staff members train their eyes on BlackBerries as they sip from their (plastic foam) cups of soda.” In 2011, BlackBerrys were becoming less popular nationally as smartphones took off. However, the rectangular handhelds remained omnipresent on Capitol Hill. One reason the boxy device lingered, Roll Call surmised, was a preference for its keyboard with raised letters.

Soon the BlackBerry 957 ended up as another technological artifact of the House of Representatives. Like the rotary phone, typewriter, and pager before it, this BlackBerry is only the latest in a long line of Capitol Hill technology that was once ubiquitous but is now obsolete.

Sources: Report of the Clerk of the House from Apr 1, 1978 to June 30, 1978, 95th Cong., 2nd sess., H.Doc. 95-372 (1978); New York Times, 1988 November 17, 2013 March 06; Roll Call, 15 November 2011; Washington Post and Times Herald, 29 December 1957, 9 January 1958; Robert L. Chartrand, “Contemporary Congressional Use of Information Technology,” 1 December 1987, Congressional Research Service; “Android Passes BlackBerry in U.S. Smartphone Survey,” Computerworld, 9 May 2011, https://www.computerworld.com/article/2508787/android-passes-blackberry-in-u-s--smartphone-survey.html; “Carbons to Computers: The Typewriter,” Smithsonian, 1998, http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/carbons/typewriters.html.