Note attached to photo: "ONLY 'HAND-PAINTED' TELEPHONE BOOK--This is how America's only 'hand-painted' telephone directory is made for The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co.'s 2300 San Francisco Chinatown subscribers. The directory's intricate Chinese characters are better produced by hand than by type. After completion the pages are made into engravings and printed. 'Painting' the telephone book requires two weeks work by Sam Wong, shown here. His father before him lettered the directory for many years. He uses ink from the cuttle fish caught near Monterey, Calif. The ink in dry form is ground in a mortar, the powder mixed with water and poured over a sponge."
