Weekend Assignment - "Yellow Pages"

                In my search for the earliest use of the term “yellow pages” in scholarly websites and newspaper databases I came across similar information.  The newspaper articles that I found were written in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The New York Times talked about the yellow pages being the nation’s largest advertising medium. The Chicago Tribune also discussed the advertising services that the yellow pages offered with an emphasis on one of the services called “single order service.” This service allowed advertisements to be placed in any directories around the country through one contract. The Los Angeles Times article which was written in 1958 explained the properties of the new version of the yellow pages which was supposed to cater to one million customers.

            An article in ProQuest discussed pregnancy and referenced the yellow pages by saying that the pages contained less than eight listings of clinics that performed abortions back in 1973. Project Muse in contrast explained how some local businesses incorporated religious messages in their advertisements in the yellow pages. Lastly, Jstor described how the yellow pages created a network for subscribers of the yellow pages. In the past, the term yellow pages were mainly used when talking about business advertising and the expansion of networks through them. In comparison to the past, I believe the meaning of the term yellow pages is the same thing as before. However, people don’t use it as often.