Emma Hunter

Emma A. Hunter (1831–1904) was an American telegraph operator from West Chester, Pennsylvania. She was hired by the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company in 1851 and worked as a telegrapher until 1868. She is known as the second female telegrapher in Pennsylvania, preceded only by Helen Plummer of Greenville in 1850. Although she was widely noted in her lifetime as the first female telegrapher in the United States, historical research has shown she was not. However, she may have been the first telecommuter, as Thomas Jepsen has argued.