The House of Representatives-Samuel F.
Color Sketch of a Railway Telegraph Signal by Samuel F. B. Morse, 1838
Telegraph polka / by Chas. Puerner.
The Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress Bound volume---28 November 1835-18 April 1838 (Series: General Correspondence and Related Documents) [Rights and Reproductions] Image 154 of 271
The progress of the century - the lightning steam press, the electric telegraph, the locomotive, [and] the steamboat
First telegraph message, 24 May 1844. (Samuel Finley Breese Morse Papers)
Telegraph stations in the United States, the Canadas & Nova Scotia.
The first telegraphic instrument
New York City--The Morse celebration at the Academy of Music, June 10th--Professor Morse manipulating his signature to the message telegraphed by Miss Sadie E. Cornwell
[Samuel F.B. Morse, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing front, posed with a camera and glass plate negatives]
Library of Congress: Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
Samuel F. B. Morse's colored sketch of railway telegraph, ca. 1838.
(Samuel Finley Breese Morse Papers)
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), perhaps best known as the inventor of the first practical telegraph instrument, began his career as an artist and enjoyed a secure reputation as a portrait painter. By 1837, however, Morse decided to devote all his time to the development of electromagnetic telegraphy. During the course of a visit in 1838-39 to Europe to secure patents, he developed an application of his telegraph for railway signaling that was designed to report automatically the presence of a train anywhere on the railway line. Morse's color drawing of this signal telegraph reflects his talent as both an inventor and artist.
John J. McDonough, Manuscript Division
For Additional Information For additional information on the Samuel Finley Breese Morse Papers, you can leave this site and read a summary catalog record for the collection.
Reproduction Number: A67 (color slide)
Related Terms: Artists | Communications | Inventions | Inventors | Morse, Samuel Finley Breese (1791-1872) | Painters | Railroads--signals | Telegraph
Science, Medicine, Exploration, and Invention | Science, Medicine, Exploration, and Invention Items List | Chronological List | Words and Deeds
Library of Congress
Telegraph polka / by Chas. Puerner.
Puerner, Chas..
CREATED/PUBLISHED New York: New York Music Pub. Co., 1885.
RELATED TITLES Music for a nation: American sheet music, 1870-1885.
MEDIUM 1 score
CALL NUMBER M2.3.U6A44
PART OF American 19th-century sheet music. Copyright deposits, 1870-1885
REPOSITORY Library of Congress. Music Division.
DIGITAL ID sm1885 03330 urn:hdl:loc.music/sm1885.03330 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1885.03330
The Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
The online presentation of The Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress comprises about 6,500 items, or approximately 50,000 images, that document Morse's invention of the electromagnetic telegraph, his participation in the development of telegraph systems in the United States and abroad, his career as a painter, his family life, his travels, and his interest in early photography, religion, and the nativist movement. Included in the collection are correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, scrapbooks, printed matter, maps, drawings, and other miscellaneous materials. The papers included date from 1793 to 1919, but most are from 1807 to 1872. The collection includes the original paper tape containing the first telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?," sent on May 24, 1844. The digitization of the Morse Papers is made possible through the generous support of the AT&T Foundation.
The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning.
The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.
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Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs
TITLE:The progress of the century - the lightning steam press, the electric telegraph, the locomotive, [and] the steamboat
CALL NUMBER:PGA - Currier & Ives--Progress ... (A size) [P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:LC-USZ62-102264 (b&w film copy neg.) LC-USZ62-664 (b&w film copy neg.)
SUMMARY:Man using telegraph in foreground; in background are people using steam press, steamboat, and locomotive.
MEDIUM:1 print : lithograph.
CREATED/PUBLISHED:New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1876.
CREATOR:
Currier & Ives.
NOTES:
Currier & Ives : a catalogue raisonné / compiled by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 5379
SUBJECTS:
Progress--1870-1880. Telegraph--1870-1880. Steamboats--1870-1880. Railroad locomotives--1870-1880. Presses--1870-1880.
FORMAT:
Lithographs 1870-1880.
DIGITAL ID:(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3c02264 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c02264 (b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a04582 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a04582
CONTROL #:90716345
Library of Congress: Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
First telegraph message, 24 May 1844.
(Samuel Finley Breese Morse Papers)
Artist and inventor Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) is credited with developing the first practical telegraph instrument, an apparatus he formally demonstrated on 24 May 1844. Shown here is the "outgoing" paper tape containing the famed message "What hath God Wrought?," which was sent by Morse on the wire from the Supreme Court chamber in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., to his assistant, Alfred Vail (1807-1859), who was stationed at the Mount Clare railroad depot in Baltimore, Maryland. In this dramatic demonstration, Morse proved the telegraph a success. Four tapes of the message sent that day were produced: this strip of the outgoing message sent from Washington, D.C.; a tape recording the incoming message simultaneously in Baltimore; an outgoing repeat-back tape sent from Baltimore by Vail; and a tape recording the repeat-back message in Washington. The whereabouts of all but one tape, Vail's outgoing strip from Baltimore, are known. Morse's outgoing message, shown here, was inscribed by him and presented at the time of the demonstration to Miss Annie G. Ellsworth, the young daughter of his friend Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (1791-1858), commissioner of patents. It was Annie who selected the text from the Bible (Numbers XXIII, 23) and who also traced in heavy pen and ink over the pencilled letters Morse had written under each code character. Seventy-eight years later, in 1922, Annie Ellsworth's daughter, Mrs. George Inness, gave the tape to the Library of Congress.
John J. McDonough, Manuscript Division
For Additional Information For additional information on the Samuel Finley Breese Morse Papers, you can leave this site and read a summary catalog record for the collection.
Reproduction Number: A97 (color slide)
Related Terms: Artists | Communications | Ellsworth, Annie G. | Ellsworth, Henry Leavitt (1791-1858) | Inventions | Inventors | Morse, Samuel Finley Breese (1791-1872) | Painters | Telegraph | Vail, Alfred (1807-1859)| Science, Medicine, Exploration, and Invention | Science, Medicine, Exploration, and Invention Items List | Chronological List | Words and Deeds
Library of Congress: Transportation and Communication
Telegraph stations in the United States, the Canadas & Nova Scotia.
Barr, Chas. B.
CREATED/PUBLISHED [S.l.], 1853.
NOTES Scale [1:4,200,000].
SUBJECTS Telecommunication--United States--Maps. United States.
MEDIUM 1 map : col. ; 58 x 64 cm.
CALL NUMBER G3701.P92 1853 .B2 TIL
REPOSITORY Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650
DIGITAL ID g3701p ct000084 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701p.ct000084
Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs
TITLE:The first telegraphic instrument
CALL NUMBER:SSF - Telegraphs - 1870 [item] [P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:LC-USZ62-1406 (b&w film copy neg.)
SUMMARY:Copy photograph of a photomechanical print depicting the first telegraph apparatus, used between Baltimore and Washington in 1844. Margins include bust portraits of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel F.B. Morse, Alfred Vail, and Cyrus W. Field.
MEDIUM:1 photographic print.
CREATED/PUBLISHED:[1945]
RELATED NAMES:
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872. Vail, Alfred, 1807-1859.
NOTES:
Photomechanical print copyright 1870 by The New-York Fine Art Company.
Photomechanical print inscribed: The above photograph is a true representation of the earliest instrument constructed for public use and operated upon the experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore in 1844. It was in charge of Alfred Vail Esq. at the Balt. Station, while its counterpart, a similar instrument, was under my charge at Washington. Saml. F.B. Morse, New York, May 31, 1870.
Copy photograph inscribed on verso: Photograph of the first telegraph instrument used by the late Professor Morse on his experimental line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md. Presented by Mr. S. Silshee Thompson, 3 Hamilton Ave., New York City, N.Y.
SUBJECTS:
Telegraph--1840-1850. Inventions--1840-1850. Experiments--1840-1850.
FORMAT:
Photomechanical prints 1870 Reproductions 1940-1950. Photographic prints 1940-1950.
REPOSITORY:Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID:(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a05220 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a05220
CONTROL #:2001700117
Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs
TITLE:New York City--The Morse celebration at the Academy of Music, June 10th--Professor Morse manipulating his signature to the message telegraphed by Miss Sadie E. Cornwell
CALL NUMBER:Illus. in AP2.L52 Case Y [P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:LC-USZ62-116332 (b&w film copy neg.)
RIGHTS INFORMATION:No known restrictions on publication.
MEDIUM:1 print : wood engraving.
CREATED/PUBLISHED:1871 July 1.
NOTES:
Illus. in: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, 1871 July 1, p. 249.
SUBJECTS:
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872. Cornwell, Sadie E. Telegraph--1870-1880. Historical reenactments--New York (State)--New York--1870-1880.
FORMAT:
Periodical illustrations 1870-1880. Wood engravings 1870-1880.
DIGITAL ID:(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3c16332 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c16332
CONTROL #:96509407
Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs
TITLE:[Samuel F.B. Morse, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing front, posed with a camera and glass plate negatives]
CALL NUMBER:BIOG FILE - Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872, artist & inventor [item] [P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:LC-USZ62-12900 (b&w film copy neg.)
SUMMARY:Copy photograph of plate published in the Philadelphia Photographer, v. 9, 1872, opp. p. 1.
MEDIUM:1 photographic print.
CREATED/PUBLISHED:[between 1950 and 1960, of a photograph published in 1872]
CREATOR:
Bogardus, A. (Abraham), 1822-1908, photographer.
SUBJECTS:
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872.
FORMAT:
Portrait photographs 1870-1880. Photographic prints 1950-1960.
REPOSITORY:Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID:(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a15240 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a15240
CONTROL #:2001700119