First Phonebooks, premiers Pages Jaunes, first White Pages

1878 first Phonebook in New Heaven

1878 February 21 was issued the Phonebook
in New Heaven, Connecticut, USA.
The tiny book listed 50 telephone subscribers
but no numbers,
as one had to go through an operator to place a call.
The author Ammon Shea talks about it in her essay
"The Phonebook" by Pinguine Publications.

1874, two years before the invention of the Phone
the Lakeside City Directory came out,
this directory published by the Donnelley printing family
is an early version of the later Yellow Pages
and it list companies all over Chicago.

1883 / 1886 first Yellow Pages around the US

There are many legends and fairy tales
and nobody knows precisely
who invented the expression Yellowpages ...

According to one of legend
in 1883 a printer in the US city Cayenne
run out of white paper and used yellow he had in stock
to finish printing a directory that had to respect a deadline.

Reuben Hamilton Donnelly, one of the fathers of the Yellow Pages

Reuben Hamilton Dennelley,
one of the fathers of the Yellow Pages

In 1886 Reuben Hamilton Donnelley (1864-1929) created a company in Chicago
which produced a Yellow Pages directory.
The company underwent many changes and resoved in Dex Media
an American Directory publisher.

main entrance of the RR Donnelley & Sons Company
in Chicago

He was the son of Richard Robert Donnelley (1836-1899),
a prominent printer from Chicago and founder of the RR Donnelley Company.
RR Donnelley is still based in Chacago and an important Fortune 500 corportation.

early Yellowpages by Reuben Hamilton Dennelley
edited from Chicago

Some people consider Reuben H Donnelley as the founder of the
Yellow Pages Industry.
More about the Donnelley family from the Chicago University Library
and from the RR Donnelley Timeline

1887 first Pages Jaunes in Paris
Some people beleive that Pages Jaunes
are an invention of France Telecom.
In reality the name came up in the late 19th century
more or less at the same time
than the Yellow Pages.

Yellow means Jaune in Franch, Pages Jaunes is the French world for Yellow Pages
or Paginas Amarillas or Paginas Amarelas.

1887 came out the 90th edition
of the Annuaire du Commerce Didot Bottin:

Annuaire du Commerce 1887 and Ben Solms, editor of the Phonebook of the World

Ben Solms, editor of Whitepages.fr
with the 1887 edition of the Annuaire du Commerce
Didot Bottin

l'Annuaire de 1887 contient une rubrique Pages Jaunes

The Pages Jaunes already existed back in 1887

One day the wife
of the famous trademark lawyer Andre Bertrand
noticed them in a old old directory ...

The editor of Whitepages.fr tried to find them
in different libraries and there they are
The Pages Jaunes back from 1887.
1887 is the year when the construction of the Eiffel Tower began ...

at the Expo Universelle 1878
there was no Eiffel Tower

Pages Jaunes = Annuaire Illustre des Fabriquants

Annuaire Illustre des Fabricants = Pages Jaunes
Marques de Fabrique et de Commerce = Pages Vertes

Most probably there are more references to Pages Jaunes
back from the late 19th century ...
What is curious to mention is that the Pages Jaunes by Didot Bottin
did not list any phone numbers,
they only list Businesses by Activity and their adresses.

The first directory with Parision Phone numbers does not come out
before 1890

1890 first Paris Telephone Book

Louis Henri Schlumberger with the very first Phonebook of Paris

1890 the very first Annuaire de Paris / Phonebook of Paris
and Louis Henri Schlumberger from Phonebook of the World

Ministère de Commerce, de l'Industrie et des Colonies
supervises the Direction Générale des Postes et des Télégraphes

1890 comes out the first Paris Telephone Book
It lists 6.425 Telephone subscribers.

Telecom History in France