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 10 items.
Engraved woodblock of the "Arikara sign for lie or falsehood"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of an “Arikara sign for a lie or falsehood” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1881 as Figure 233 (p. 393) in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Sign Language Among the North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Mallery, Garrick
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0340
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0340
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of "Climbing the Grand Canyon"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Climbing the Grand Canyon” was prepared by F. S. King and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1875 on page 98 of John Wesley Powell's Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Thomas Moran (1837-1926) was the original artist.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- original artist
- Moran, Thomas
- graphic artist
- King, Francis Scott
- maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0474
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0474
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "Thomomys clusius" or Wyoming Pocket Gopher
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Tholomomys Chusius” or (Thomomys Clusius) Wyoming Pocket Gopher was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published in 1875 as Figure 80 (p.265) in Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). The image appears in Part Third, entitled “Zoology” by Elliott Coues (1842-1899). The illustration was engraved by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- original artist
- Keene, S. W.
- author
- Coues, Elliott
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1088
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1088
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of seven American Indians in an enclosure
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of seven American Indians inside an enclosure was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology in about 1880. The engraving is marked with the initials WLS and DN for the original and graphic artists. The full names of the artists have not yet been identified.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1121
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1121
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of three individuals, two on horses and one standing
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of three American Indians, two on horseback and one standing, was engraved by F. S. King and printed by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology in about 1880.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- graphic artist
- King, Francis Scott
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1242
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1242
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "View of Marble Canyon (from the Vermillion Cliffs)"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “View of Marble Canyon (from the Vermillion Cliffs)” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 63 (p.180) in Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). The image depicts the “Colorado River [and] the Eastern Kaibab Displacements, appearing as folds [and] faults.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1355
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1355
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of an "Indian Village"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of an “Indian Village” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published in 1875 as Figure 43 (p.119) in Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). The illustration was drawn by Thomas Moran, and engraved by John Minton (fl. 1875).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- original artist
- Moran, Thomas
- graphic artist
- Minton, John
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1424
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1424
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of cliff dwellings and pueblos
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of cliff dwellings and pueblos was prepared by John Minton and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in John Wesley Powell's Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1875. Thomas Moran (1837-1926) was the original artist.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- original artist
- Moran, Thomas
- graphic artist
- Minton, John
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1512
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1512
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Bird’s-eye view of cliffs of erosion"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of the “Bird’s-eye view of cliffs of erosion” was prepared and printed by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published in 1875 as Figure 74 (p.162) in The Exploration of the Colorado River of the West by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) engraved the illustration which “depicts the Shin-ar’-ump Cliffs, Vermillion Cliffs, and Gray Cliffs, in order from right to left.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1562
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1562
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of "Marble Canyon"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of "Marble Canyon” was prepared by engraver Edward Bookhout (1844-1886) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1875 as Figure 26 (p.77) in Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). Thomas Moran (1837-1926) accompanied Powell on his expedition and drew the original image.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- original artist
- Moran, Thomas
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- graphic artist
- Bookhout, Edward
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0259
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0259
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center