Theodore Newton Vail Collection (VMF173) | MSS Manuscripts

Vail, Theodore Newton

Theodore Newton Vail (July 16, 1845 – April 16, 1920) was a U.S. telephone industrialist. His philosophy of using closed systems, centralized power, and as much network control as possible, in order to maintain monopoly power, has been called Vailism. He served as the president of American Telephone & Telegraph between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919 (the company was named American Telephone & Telegraph before 1894). He convinced President Woodrow Wilson that the telephone as a medium of communication would spread more rapidly if brought under one monopoly so as to ensure uniform provision of services throughout the country.