Communications

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.

This Brush “Mail-A-Voice” recorder was designed in the late 1940s as an office dictating machine. As tape recording technology was developed, experimenters tried a variety of formats including flat paper or plastic discs.
Description (Brief)
This Brush “Mail-A-Voice” recorder was designed in the late 1940s as an office dictating machine. As tape recording technology was developed, experimenters tried a variety of formats including flat paper or plastic discs. These discs resembled the record players familiar to many in that era and did not require threading a wire or tape. The discs could also be folded and mailed to a recipient in an ordinary business-size envelope, something impossible to do with an inflexible record.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1947
maker
Brush Development Company
ID Number
1995.3101.01
nonaccession number
1995.3101
catalog number
1995.3101.01
These recording discs were made for the Brush Company “Mail-A-Voice” dictating machine. This set of 62 discs includes several slightly different types, the most significant difference being that some are paper and some are plastic.
Description (Brief)
These recording discs were made for the Brush Company “Mail-A-Voice” dictating machine. This set of 62 discs includes several slightly different types, the most significant difference being that some are paper and some are plastic. All are flexible and coated with a magnetizable powder. The Mail-A-Voice was designed by German immigrant Semi J. Begun who also used the device for personal correspondence. Several of the discs in the set are audio letters from Begun to his mother.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1947
maker
Brush Development Company
ID Number
1995.3101.05
nonaccession number
1995.3101
catalog number
1995.3101.05
This model BK-416 “Soundmirror” is a modified version of Brush’s model BK-401. Like the earlier unit, the BK-416 used a paper tape coated with a magnetizable material in a reel-to-reel configuration. The retail price in 1953 was about $280, nearly $2300 in 2012 dollars.
Description (Brief)
This model BK-416 “Soundmirror” is a modified version of Brush’s model BK-401. Like the earlier unit, the BK-416 used a paper tape coated with a magnetizable material in a reel-to-reel configuration. The retail price in 1953 was about $280, nearly $2300 in 2012 dollars. Working in parallel with Bell Laboratories and the Armour Research Foundation, Brush Development Company spearheaded American research efforts in magnetic recording prior to World War II. Building on the research of Semi Begun, the company made military wire recorders during the war and introduced consumer products like this Soundmirror after the war ended.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948
maker
Brush Development Company
ID Number
1995.0316.02
accession number
1995.0316
catalog number
1995.0316.02
The production of television sets was suspended in the U.S. during World War Two but quickly resumed after the war ended. This model 101 “Revere” television made by DuMont Company included an AM-FM-short wave radio receiver with high fidelity amplifier, and a record changer.
Description (Brief)
The production of television sets was suspended in the U.S. during World War Two but quickly resumed after the war ended. This model 101 “Revere” television made by DuMont Company included an AM-FM-short wave radio receiver with high fidelity amplifier, and a record changer. Founded by Allen B. DuMont (1901-1965), the company established a television network and produced sets throughout the 1950s. The original list price of this 1947 Revere was $1795.00, equivalent to almost $18,500.00 in 2013.
date made
1947
associated date
1949
maker
DuMont Company
ID Number
EM.327729
catalog number
327729
accession number
270106
This prototype wireless telegraph key is from 1941. Until recently “wireless” meant radio and operators used keys to send radio messages via Morse code. The key is a semi-automatic device made by Lynn G. Heatherly.
Description (Brief)
This prototype wireless telegraph key is from 1941. Until recently “wireless” meant radio and operators used keys to send radio messages via Morse code. The key is a semi-automatic device made by Lynn G. Heatherly. While working for the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company in Jacksonville, NC, Heatherly received US Patent #2,323,133 for this improved key. A semi-automatic key repeated the Morse code dots rapidly, much like holding down a key on a keyboard for repeated letters. The operator still keyed the dashes but could work much faster.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941
maker
Lynn G. Heatherly
ID Number
2003.0235.01
accession number
2003.0235
catalog number
2003.0235.01
This is small, aluminum press, is dismantled and boxed, with accessories and an instruction booklet. The press was made in about 1940. The assembled press has a height of 11 inches a length of 14 inches and a width of 10.5 inches.
Description (Brief)
This is small, aluminum press, is dismantled and boxed, with accessories and an instruction booklet. The press was made in about 1940. The assembled press has a height of 11 inches a length of 14 inches and a width of 10.5 inches. Its box measures 13 inches high by 12.5 inches wide and 12.5 inches deep.
The little press was made for underground use in the Second World War; it came to the Museum under the name “X press.” There is no maker’s name on the press or its accessories, but the anonymous instruction booklet is printed on paper with the eagle watermark of the U.S. Government.
Donated by Lt. Col. Charles T. R. Bohannan, 1978.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940
maker
unknown
ID Number
GA.24879.01
catalog number
24879.01
accession number
1978.0522
One of the difficulties of using steel wire as a recording medium was the fragility of the thin wire. These RCA model MI-12877 recording cartridges from about 1948 were designed to address that problem.
Description (Brief)
One of the difficulties of using steel wire as a recording medium was the fragility of the thin wire. These RCA model MI-12877 recording cartridges from about 1948 were designed to address that problem. The user simply inserts the cartridge into the recorder and can quickly begin using the machine. The steel casing is durable and the wires are only exposed at the front of the cartridge.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948
maker
Radio Corporation of America
ID Number
2002.0034.02
accession number
2002.0034
catalog number
2002.0034.02
During World War II, the United States government recognized that full public support and dedication to the war effort was essential to victory.
Description
During World War II, the United States government recognized that full public support and dedication to the war effort was essential to victory. To bolster support, the government hired artists to create propaganda posters, designed to promote patriotism with simple, catchy slogans and colorful images. Toiling factory workers, thrifty home front mothers, and fearless soldiers were among the most popular images used by artists to communicate the message.
This 1942 poster commissioned by the War Shipping Administration encouraged a specific mission, designed to attract former seamen back into the Merchant Marine. At the time, American shipyards were producing cargo ships faster than crews could be assembled, forcing recruiters to rely not only on new volunteers, but also to persuade experienced mariners to leave retirement and go back to sea.
The creation of incentive posters mainly fell under the watch of the Office of War Information, a government agency created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1942 to consolidate public information services and coordinate the sanctioned release of war news. The OWI reviewed and approved the content of newsreels, radio broadcasts, and billboards, in addition to producing hundreds of posters. Initially, the most pressing message to be communicated through posters was a warning to Americans about the dangers of discussing sensitive information like production schedules and troop movements that could be overheard by enemy spies. Over the course of the war, posters covered a variety of topics, such as encouraging the purchase of war bonds and galvanizing the work force at shipyards to keep production going on the assembly line.
date made
1942
commissioned poster
War Shipping Administration
directed poster program
United States. Office of War Information
Associated Name
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
ID Number
1991.0856.07
catalog number
1991.0856.07
accession number
1991.0856
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Batman comic strip shows a man dying and requesting that Batman deliver a message, in the form of a poem, to a girl he once held prisoner.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Batman comic strip shows a man dying and requesting that Batman deliver a message, in the form of a poem, to a girl he once held prisoner. When Batman and Robin question his sanity, the man says he hates everything about Batman.
Robert Kahn, regularly using the pseudonym Bob Kane (1915-1998), started work as a comic artist at the Eisner and Iger Studio in New York City. In 1938 he began working for publishers Action Comics and DC Comics. In 1938 Kane teamed up with Bill Finger to create Batman. Kane drew the Batman strip and Batman comic books until the mid-1940s. In the 1960s he assisted with the television show Courageous Cat and consulted on various Batman adaptations.
Batman (1943-1946, 1966-1974, 1989-1991) started its comic strip run, originally under the name Batman and Robin, a few years after its debut in comic books. The strip had three separate runs in American newspapers. The first was drawn and written by Bob Kane, and others. The second drew inspiration from the Batman television show. It was credited to Kane, but was actually created by a team of other artists. The third run was drawn by Carmine Infantino and published for two years.
date made
1945-04-27
graphic artist
Kane, Bob
maker
D. C. Comics, Inc.
ID Number
2010.0081.295
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.295
Telegraph relays amplify an electrical signal in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages travel as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver.
Description
Telegraph relays amplify an electrical signal in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages travel as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. The pulses fade in strength as they travel through the wire, limiting the distance a message can be sent. Relays remedy that problem by detecting a weak signal and automatically re-transmitting that signal down the line using a local power source.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
ID Number
EM.332626
catalog number
332626
accession number
294351
collector/donor number
64-06
serial number
3635
This aluminum press came disassembled and packed in a small suitcase. Its maker is unknown, but was made about 1940. The press platen measures 5 inches by 8 inches.The press was cast in moulds for the Kelsey Excelsior, but was not cast by the Kelsey Company itself.
Description (Brief)
This aluminum press came disassembled and packed in a small suitcase. Its maker is unknown, but was made about 1940. The press platen measures 5 inches by 8 inches.
The press was cast in moulds for the Kelsey Excelsior, but was not cast by the Kelsey Company itself. It was made for clandestine military use in World War II, and came to the Museum under the name “Spy press.”
Donated by Richard N. Weltz, 1979.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
circa 1940
date made
ca 1940
maker
unknown
ID Number
1980.0730.01
catalog number
1980.0730.01
accession number
1980.0730
This pen-and-ink drawing for the Li’l Abner newspaper strip shows the general frenzy associated with fast-approaching Sadie Hawkins Day.Alfred Gerald Caplin or Al Capp (1909-1979) began drawing comics in his youth after a serious accident which required a leg amputation.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing for the Li’l Abner newspaper strip shows the general frenzy associated with fast-approaching Sadie Hawkins Day.
Alfred Gerald Caplin or Al Capp (1909-1979) began drawing comics in his youth after a serious accident which required a leg amputation. He attended art schools and in the early 1930s was given the opportunity to introduce a new character, named Big Leviticus, to the newspaper strip Joe Palooka. Inspired by his work with Ham Fisher on the strip, Capp began developing his own strip, called Li’l Abner, a look at a fictitious, backward mountain culture. The strip debuted in 1934 and was shortly syndicated worldwide. Capp, like other comic artists, used his strip to comment on cultural shortcomings and prejudices.
Li’l Abner (1934-1977) was a satirical comic strip about a hillbilly clan living in fictional Dogpatch, Arkansas. The title character was a large, simple, naïve, and good-hearted individual. The character Li'l Abner also spent the better part of two decades evading the affections of Daisy Mae Scraggs, whose family was the sworn enemy of his family, the Yokums. Eventually, Capp yielded to readers’ wishes and married Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae in 1952. The strip's storyline included the fabrication of Sadie Hawkins Day, the annual event which allowed women the opportunity to literally catch a husband.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941-11-08
graphic artist
Capp, Al
publisher
United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
2010.0081.095
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.095
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
maker
Whitall Tatum Company
ID Number
EM.330871
catalog number
330871
accession number
299122
This GE wire recorder is a licensed copy of the Armour model 50 recorder designed and made for the U.S. military during World War II. Based on the work of Marvin Camras, Armour fabricated wire recorders at a small, specially-built plant until 1944.
Description (Brief)
This GE wire recorder is a licensed copy of the Armour model 50 recorder designed and made for the U.S. military during World War II. Based on the work of Marvin Camras, Armour fabricated wire recorders at a small, specially-built plant until 1944. The demand for increased production of recorders led GE to begin production of the model 51.
The Armed Forces Radio Service used a variety of recording devices, including wire recorders, to bring programming to troops stationed around the world. This wire recorder used four vacuum tubes and ran on alternating current.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
maker
General Electric Company
ID Number
1992.0438.01
catalog number
1992.0438.01
accession number
1992.0438
RCA demonstrated electronic television at the 1939 World’s Fair and other manufacturers quickly began to develop products. Allen B. Dumont Laboratories already produced one of the main components, cathode ray tubes or CRTs.
Description (Brief)
RCA demonstrated electronic television at the 1939 World’s Fair and other manufacturers quickly began to develop products. Allen B. Dumont Laboratories already produced one of the main components, cathode ray tubes or CRTs. Dumont made these tubes for oscilloscopes but understood they would also serve as picture tubes. This tube has a 3.5 inch face with a white phosphor. The clear envelope allows one to see the electron gun mechanism that produces the stream of cathode rays.
Marked: "149" inked on press. Stamped with Dumont maker's stamp and "Globe Television and Phone Corp." Paper label handwritten: "Fil. Current 5.6A Med[?] Elect. -20V Accel. Elect. +840V Accel. Current 250 microamps" Fil = filament, accel = accellerator. Dumont provided tubes for its own sets and for other manufacturers like Globe Television and Phone Corp. of Boston. Globe made mechanical television sets in the early 1930s and presumably was moving into electronic television.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940
maker
DuMont Company
ID Number
EM.328322
catalog number
328322
accession number
270517
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944
maker
Kline, Franz
ID Number
2013.0057.01
accession number
2013.0057
catalog number
2013.0057.01
This reel-to-reel BK-401 “Soundmirror” used paper recording tape coated with artificial magnetite particles. Brush Company designed the BK-401 after Semi Begun’s experiments convinced him that a thin, flexible tape would give good audio performance.
Description (Brief)
This reel-to-reel BK-401 “Soundmirror” used paper recording tape coated with artificial magnetite particles. Brush Company designed the BK-401 after Semi Begun’s experiments convinced him that a thin, flexible tape would give good audio performance. Introduced in 1947 with tape made by Shellmar Company, the expensive BK-401 malfunctioned easily. Despite good initial sales, production ceased in 1952.
Before leaving Nazi Germany in 1935, Begun had heard of Fritz Pfleumer’s work on printing cigarette paper with a gold-colored band. Pfleumer also made paper tape coated with magnetizable materials and fabricated a demonstration tape recorder in 1931.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948
maker
Brush Development Company
ID Number
EM.336308
catalog number
336308
accession number
1977.0895
model number
BK-401
serial number
6677
model number
BA-106
This children's tin-plate rotary press for rubber type, with original box and equipment, was made by the Superior Type Company in Chicago in the mid-20th century.
Description (Brief)
This children's tin-plate rotary press for rubber type, with original box and equipment, was made by the Superior Type Company in Chicago in the mid-20th century. The press has a height of 5 inches and a length of 15 inches and a width of 8 inches.
The Swiftset Rotary Printing Press, model No. 8502, is similar to other tin-plate presses recorded separately, the Ace and Cub presses, both sold by the Superior Marking Equipment Company.
Donated by Mrs. Marabeth S. Finn
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca. 1940s
date made
ca1940s
ca1950
ca 1950
maker
Superior Type Company
Superior Type Company
ID Number
1998.0266.01
catalog number
1998.0266.01
accession number
1998.0266
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for Buck Rogers shows Feather explaining to Captain Rogers how he used humor and essentially acted as a court jester to trick Modar and Futura into letting him into the palace to spy on the criminals.Murphy Anderson (1926- ) began working as a co
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for Buck Rogers shows Feather explaining to Captain Rogers how he used humor and essentially acted as a court jester to trick Modar and Futura into letting him into the palace to spy on the criminals.
Murphy Anderson (1926- ) began working as a comic book artist in 1944, drawing strips such as Suicide Smith and Star Pirate. In 1947 he took over the Buck Rogers newspaper strip after original artist Dick Calkins retired, but he left the strip two years later to return to comic books. Anderson returned to drawing Buck Rogers in 1958 but for less than a year.
Buck Rogers (1929-1967, 1979-1983) was an adventure strip inspired by a story entitled “Armageddon 2419 AD,” which appeared in a 1928 issue of Amazing Stories magazine. The strip debuted with a storyline similar to that of the magazine where the hero, a young man named Anthony Rogers, wakes up five hundred years in the future, after a gas-induced sleep, to an America being ruled by evil overlords. Rogers is then recruited by the resistance, and begins his work fighting aliens, robots, and other villains. The strip was canceled in 1967 but was restored in 1979, as a television series, a comic book version, a feature film, and a comic strip.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1948-04-07
graphic artist
Anderson, Murphy
publisher
John F. Dille Company
ID Number
2010.0081.004
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.004
This “Red Head” recording-playback head was designed by Brush Company around 1950 for sale to tape recorder manufacturers. Inside the housing is a small, specially-shaped electromagnet designed to produce a focused magnetic field.
Description (Brief)
This “Red Head” recording-playback head was designed by Brush Company around 1950 for sale to tape recorder manufacturers. Inside the housing is a small, specially-shaped electromagnet designed to produce a focused magnetic field. When recording, a current fed into the head varied according to the strength of the input signal and that variation was captured by the recording tape. For playback, the magnetic field on the tape generated a signal in the head as it passed close. The closer the playback signal matched the input signal, the more accurate the recorded sound.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948
maker
Brush Development Co.
ID Number
1995.0316.15
accession number
1995.0316
catalog number
1995.0316.15
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. A semi-automatic key or "bug" repeated the Morse code dots rapidly. The operator still keyed the dashes but could work much faster.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. A semi-automatic key or "bug" repeated the Morse code dots rapidly. The operator still keyed the dashes but could work much faster. This semi-automatic key was hand-made by an American soldier in early 1944. The catalog card from Western Union reported: "Bug made by Corporal Julian N. Jablin while on the Anzio Beachead [sic]. It was made of scrap brass from a shell case, plastic from a German plane that had been shot down and hardware from an Italian clock. It was actually used in radio communication until the operator on the other end told Cpl. Jablin to change to his left foot."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944
maker
Jablin, Julian N.
ID Number
EM.331323
accession number
294351
collector/donor number
100-049
catalog number
331323
This model MI-12525 RCA wire recorder shows one answer to a major problem of using steel wire to record sound. The recording wire is wound into a cartridge. The user simply inserts the cartridge into the recorder and can quickly begin using the machine.
Description (Brief)
This model MI-12525 RCA wire recorder shows one answer to a major problem of using steel wire to record sound. The recording wire is wound into a cartridge. The user simply inserts the cartridge into the recorder and can quickly begin using the machine. This machine was designed for use in office dictation around 1948.
Early magnetic recorders used steel wire or steel bands as a recording medium instead of plastic tape. Steel wire was fragile and tangled easily. Threading a recording machine took a certain amount of finesse and the wire could easily break if mishandled.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948
maker
Radio Corporation of America
ID Number
2002.0034.01
accession number
2002.0034
catalog number
2002.0034.01
In 1935 magnetic recording expert Semi Begun left Nazi Germany and came to the United States where he went to work for Brush Development Company in Cleveland, Ohio. By the end of World War II he had helped Brush market several types of recording devices.
Description (Brief)
In 1935 magnetic recording expert Semi Begun left Nazi Germany and came to the United States where he went to work for Brush Development Company in Cleveland, Ohio. By the end of World War II he had helped Brush market several types of recording devices. Some used steel tape, some coated paper tape, and some like the model BK-303 used steel wire.
Since steel can be magnetized, the steel wire served as a recording medium. The thin wire broke easily but could be repaired by simply tying the ends together. Unlike coated plastic tape the wire served both to preserve the magnetic field and as structural support. That resulted in design compromises. Tape machines gave better results because each part could be optimized for its role. The tape could be made less brittle than the wire, and the coating could hold a stronger magnetic field than the wire. Brush and Begun soon turned to tape recordings.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1946
maker
Brush Development Company
ID Number
1989.0311.01
accession number
1989.0311
catalog number
1989.0311.01
model number
BK303
In 1945 William Lear purchased a license from the Armour Research Foundation and made wire recorders like this “Dynaport” unit. The Dynaport combined a wire recorder with a disk record player. The user could play records and make a wire recording of the contents.
Description (Brief)
In 1945 William Lear purchased a license from the Armour Research Foundation and made wire recorders like this “Dynaport” unit. The Dynaport combined a wire recorder with a disk record player. The user could play records and make a wire recording of the contents. Users could also connect the Dynaport with a radio and record programs off the air.
The Dynaport did not sell well and Lear turned his attention to other products like small business jets. Years later he redesigned a tape cartridge system and became a driving force in the introduction of 8-track tape players for automobiles.
This unit includes the recorder, a power amplifier, five spools of recording wire, an empty container for a spool of wire (mounted on the machine), two recording heads, a recording arm, a recording microphone with stand, and a bag of loose parts and tools. Box reads "WR105A".Also included are the owner's manual, wiring schematics for both the recorder and the amplifier, technical information for the recording arm and head, and advertising sheets.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1948
date ordered, given, or borrowed
1981-01-15
maker
Lear, Inc.
ID Number
1984.0901.01
accession number
1984.0901
serial number
175
catalog number
1984.0901.01

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