Communications - Overview
Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.
The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.
More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.
"Communications - Overview" showing 45 items.
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Tiffany's Transatlantic Cable Souvenir
- Description
- The completion of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858 was a cause for much celebration on both sides of the Atlantic. Tiffany & Company of New York purchased the cable remaining on board the USS Niagara after the successful completion of the cable and sold 4-inch sections as souvenirs. Each section of cable was banded at the ends with brass ferrules and had a brass plaque that read “ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE/GUARANTEED BY/TIFFANY & CO./ BROADWAY • NEW YORK • 1858.” The cable souvenirs originally sold for 50 cents and came with a reproduced letter of authenticity from Cyrus W. Field, the pioneer of the transatlantic cable system. The jubilation turned to jeers when the cable failed a few weeks later, and Tiffany never sold its supply of cable. In 1974 Lanello Reserves began reselling the transatlantic cable, and donated this object to the Smithsonian.
- date made
- 1858
- maker
- Glass, Elliot, & Co.
- ID Number
- EM*334736.01
- accession number
- 312154
- catalog number
- 334736
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for a Hand Stamp
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking percussion stamp; the invention was granted patent number 16608.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1857
- date made
- ca 1857
- patent date
- 1857-02-10
- maker
- Ramsay, P. A.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.15
- patent number
- 016608
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.15
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent model for printers' chase lock
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a combination of quoins and sidesticks, with a special lever for their adjustment; the invention was granted patent number 11091.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1854
- date made
- ca 1854
- patent date
- 1854-06-13
- maker
- Sprague, E. H.
- ID Number
- 1996.0062.16
- patent number
- 011091
- accession number
- 1996.0062
- catalog number
- 1996.0062.16
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for a Paper-Folding Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a paper-folding machine which was granted patent number 7722. It was a machine for folding sheets of paper by forcing them between plates.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1850
- date made
- ca 1850
- patent date
- 1850-10-15
- maker
- Snow, George K.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.007722
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 007722
- catalog number
- GA*89797.007722
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model for a Hand Stamp
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking stamp, operated by hand or foot; the invention was granted number 16641.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1857
- date made
- ca 1857
- patent date
- 1857-02-17
- maker
- Elliot, William H.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.016641
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 016641
- catalog number
- GA*89797.016641
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Patent Model of a Hand Stamp
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking hand stamp which was granted patent number 21980.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1858
- date made
- ca 1858
- patent date
- 1858-11-02
- maker
- Phelps, James N.
- ID Number
- GA*89797.021980
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 021980
- catalog number
- GA*89797.021980
- patent number
- 021980
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Adam and Eve
- Description
- In 1853 John Sartain engraved his large (44 x 32 cm) print after Marcantonio Raimondi’s Adam Receiving the Forbidden Fruit from Eve, which had been designed by Raphael. Sartain made more than 1,000 prints, most of which reproduced a work by another artist.
- Goupil & Company, the American branch of a Paris based firm, published this print. The company issued a large number of reproductive prints and later photographs of paintings and sculpture, either purchased or commissioned by the firm. The American branch opened in 1846 and, in addition to selling reproductive prints, also exhibited original works of art.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1853
- original artist
- Raphael
- graphic artist
- Sartain, John
- original artist
- Raimondi, Marcantonio
- publisher
- Goupil and Company
- ID Number
- GA*14354
- accession number
- 94830
- catalog number
- 14354
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lowe Press No. 2, patented 1856
- Description
- Samuel W. Lowe of Philadelphia invented the Lowe printing press, an unusual conical cylinder press patented in 1856. Like Adams's Cottage printing press, it did not include a frisket and included an automatic tympan. The rights for the press were sold in 1858 to Joseph Watson, who marketed both presses in Boston and Philadelphia.
- The Lowe printing press does not appear to have been as heavily advertised as the Adams, although the company notes that we have sold many presses … to druggists … in this country and in other lands. Every boy and business man seems to be having one.
- As for portability, the Lowe was more than a third lighter than the Adams, ranging from between 12 and 120 pounds as compared to Adams's press at between 100 and 400 pounds. The Lowe used a simpler frame and relatively thin castings.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- patent date
- 1856
- maker
- Lowe, Samuel W.
- ID Number
- 1988.0650.03
- accession number
- 1988.0650
- catalog number
- 1988.0650.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chromolithograph of bird species "Phalacrocorax Brasilianus"
- Description
- Thomas Sinclair (c.1805–1881) of Philadelphia printed this lithograph of “Phalacrocorax brasilianus [GM]” or Neotropic cormorant, from an original sketch by William Dreser (c.1820–after 1860) of Philadelphia (1847–1860) and New York (1860). The illustration was printed in 1855 by A.O.P. Nicholson in Washington, D.C. as Plate XXVIII in the “Birds” section of volume II of The United States Naval Astronomical Survey to the Southern Hemisphere, written by John Cassin (1813–1869).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date of book publication
- 1855
- graphic artist
- Sinclair, Thomas
- original artist
- Dreser, William
- publisher
- United States Navy
- printer
- Nicholson, A. O. P.
- author
- Cassin, John
- Gilliss, James Melville
- ID Number
- 2008.0175.02
- accession number
- 2008.0175
- catalog number
- 2008.0175.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraving of snake species "Elaps nigrocinctus"
- Description
- William Dougal (1822–1895) of Washington, D.C. engraved this print of “Elaps nigrocinctus [Grd]”, now "Micrurus nigrocinctus nigrocinctus" or Central American coral snake, from an original sketch John H. Richard (c.1807–1881) of Philadelphia. The illustration was published in 1855 by A.O.P. Nicholson in Washington, D.C. as Plate XXXV in the “Reptiles, fishes, crustacea” section of volume II of The United States Naval Astronomical Survey to the Southern Hemisphere, written by Charles Girard (1822–1895).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date of book publication
- 1855
- original artist
- Richard, John H.
- graphic artist
- Dougal, William H.
- book printer, publisher
- Nicholson, A. O. P.
- publisher
- United States Navy
- author
- Girard, Charles
- Gilliss, James Melville
- ID Number
- 2008.0175.08
- accession number
- 2008.0175
- catalog number
- 2008.0175.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center