Book Description

This is the story of Ma Kiley, a Texas-born railroad telegraph operator who worked as a boomer in the American West, Mexico, and Canada in the early 1900s. Although autobiographical writings by women telegraph operators are rare, Ma Kiley left a richly detailed and moving personal account of her life and work in The Bug and I, first published by Railroad Magazine in 1950. This book also includes an introduction which provides background on telegraphy, a little known area of women's work. It attempts to fill in the missing history of women in telegraphy - how women gained access to the field of telegraphy, how they were viewed by their male co-workers, and how women operators struggled to establish their own identities.