The Baby Bells were born in Boston. It all started in 1876 with Alexander Graham Bell, a Canadian who had moved to Boston in 1871 to work at the Boston School for the Deaf. Bell was also a professor of elocution at Boston University. On the side, Bell had been working in a lab with his assistant Thomas Watson on a device that he hoped would transmit sounds over a wire.

In June, 1875, the sound of a plucked reed was accidentally carried across the wires. And on March 10, 1876, Bell spoke into the device to Watson who was in the next room: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." It was the first time a distinguishable human voice was carried across a wire.

Bell would later go on to found the Bell Telephone Company, which in 1984 divided into the seven baby bell companies. Verizon was formed by a merger of NYNEX (one of the baby bells) and GTE. Alexander Graham Bell also co-founded National Geographic Society.