Communications

WANN Microphone

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.

Place: Philadelphia

Map of the Pilgrim's Progress

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1850
date made
ca 1800
graphic artist
Melish, John
ID Number
1985.0303.05
accession number
1985.0303
catalog number
1985.0303.05

Portrait of Sarah Gilmor

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1843
original artist
Lawrence, Sir Thomas
graphic artist
Sartain, John
ID Number
GA.14336
accession number
94830
catalog number
14336

Portrait of Mlle. Bellamy

Signed pencil sketch, dated 1906Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Signed pencil sketch, dated 1906
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1906
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16686
catalog number
16686
accession number
119780

Store of H. Bentley, Woodbridge, San Joaquin Co., Cal.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1870
ca 1870s
graphic artist
Evert, Louis H.
ID Number
GA.69.180
catalog number
69.180
accession number
282174

Portrait of Man with an Earring

The pen and ink portrait, signed and dated 1882, shows a man who might be North African, perhaps someone Ferris sketched on his trip to North Africa and Spain in 1881 and worked up later when he returned to Philadelphia.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
The pen and ink portrait, signed and dated 1882, shows a man who might be North African, perhaps someone Ferris sketched on his trip to North Africa and Spain in 1881 and worked up later when he returned to Philadelphia.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
maker
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.16621
catalog number
16621
accession number
119780

Roman Chariot Race

Stephen Ferris collaborated with his brother-in-law Peter Moran in 1875 to make this large reproductive etching of Alexander von Wagner’s stirring painting Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus, Rome in the Presence of the Emperor Domitian.
Description
Stephen Ferris collaborated with his brother-in-law Peter Moran in 1875 to make this large reproductive etching of Alexander von Wagner’s stirring painting Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus, Rome in the Presence of the Emperor Domitian. The scale of the work required an oversized copper plate, which was difficult to find. The young artists, who were new to the etching medium, fabricated their plate from the bottom of a copper boiler, according to H. R.Wray's 1893 Review of Etching in the United States. Moran, who would specialize in animal subjects, etched the horses, the archway in the background, and the roadway. Ferris, known for his portraits, etched the figures and the rest of the architecture. This etching was one of the largest made in the US at the time. The print was well received; the New York Times noted: “Of the style of execution we can speak only in the highest terms.”
Alexander von Wagner (1838–1919), a Hungarian artist active in Germany, also enjoyed considerable success when he exhibited the painting Chariot Race in Europe in 1872. Wagner painted other versions; one was shown to critical acclaim at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. The Manchester Art Gallery in England owns a version, which may be seen on its website. It was not unusual at that time for an artist to paint several versions of a popular subject in different sizes.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1882
1875
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
original artist
Wagner
graphic artist
Moran, Peter
publisher
J. C. McCurdy & Co.
ID Number
GA.14534
catalog number
14534
accession number
94830

Philadelphia press

This Philadelphia press was made by Frederick Bronstrup of Philadelphia after 1850. The top finial is missing.
Description (Brief)
This Philadelphia press was made by Frederick Bronstrup of Philadelphia after 1850. The top finial is missing. The press has a height of 72 inches a width, at cheeks, of 33 inches and a length of 74.5 inches; its platen measures 22.5 inches by 19 inches.
The Philadelphia press was designed and originally built by Adam Ramage of Philadelphia and, like Ramage’s better-known wooden presses, it was sternly utilitarian in looks. The A-shaped frame was made of a 1 inch by 3 inch wrought-iron band. The earliest Philadelphia presses had a simple elbow toggle lever, similar to that of the Wells press. After 1842 Ramage changed the toggles to a design closer to those of the Washington press. This was one of a group of presses deriving from Ramage’s patent of 1834, and sharing the A-frame.
After Ramage’s death in 1850, his business was taken over by
Frederick Bronstrup, a German blacksmith, who made this heftier
form of the Philadelphia press. Bronstrup sold the business in
1875.
Donated by Wallace J. Tomasini for the University of Iowa, 1984.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
after 1850
maker
Ramage, Adam
ID Number
1984.0427.01
catalog number
1984.0427.01
accession number
1984.0427

Welcome News

This etching by Emily Sartain entitled "Welcome News," sometimes called "News from the Front," depicts an image after a painting by E. Wood Perry Jr. A young woman points to a location on a map spread out on the table with two elders looking on.
Description (Brief)
This etching by Emily Sartain entitled "Welcome News," sometimes called "News from the Front," depicts an image after a painting by E. Wood Perry Jr. A young woman points to a location on a map spread out on the table with two elders looking on. She holds a letter in her left hand which appears to be associated with a location on the map, presumably the location of a son, husband, or brother involved in the Civil War. Beginning in the 1860s, Emily's father and brothers produced a number of Civil War-related prints, and this etching indicates the continuing market for such images and the family's long involvement in the genre.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
circa 1888
original artist
Perry Jr, E. Wood
graphic artist
Sartain, Emily
ID Number
2002.0260.01
catalog number
2002.0260.01
accession number
2002.0260

Boats on the Schuykill River

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1894
ID Number
GA.22188
catalog number
22188
accession number
272554

Philadelphia Streetscape

Joseph Pennell’s etching of the Water Street Stairs is one of several prints showing old Philadelphia streets and buildings that he made in 1881.
Description
Joseph Pennell’s etching of the Water Street Stairs is one of several prints showing old Philadelphia streets and buildings that he made in 1881. Some of these appeared in the Century Magazine in 1882 with an article written by Elizabeth Robins, who would become Pennell’s wife.
In his autobiography Pennell noted with pride that as a child of about five he could write text backwards and forwards in a drawing. He demonstrates that skill here. He painstakingly etched the text of the many posters and signs backwards so it would read correctly in the print. But at center left he etched the name of the theater to read backward, perhaps from a quirky sense of humor.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
nineteenth century
graphic artist
Pennell, Joseph
ID Number
GA.14230
accession number
94830
catalog number
14230

Portrait of Jean-Léon Gérôme

Stephen Ferris etched a dapper J. L. Gérôme (1824–1904) in 1899, near the end of Gérôme’s very successful career as painter and sculptor. Ferris had admired the French artist’s work for many years, at least since 1863 when he named his son after him.
Description
Stephen Ferris etched a dapper J. L. Gérôme (1824–1904) in 1899, near the end of Gérôme’s very successful career as painter and sculptor. Ferris had admired the French artist’s work for many years, at least since 1863 when he named his son after him. Although Ferris never actually met Gérôme, the two artists had corresponded. For this print Ferris used a photograph he had received from Gérôme. He then sent Gérôme trial proofs for comments and requested a signature to include in the final impressions, which appears here at lower left.
Gérôme congratulated Ferris on the portrait as “work done with great care and great talent—the effect is very good and very firm. If I had any criticism to make, I would reserve it for the background, which is a little too even, and for the clothing, which has a little softness in the execution.” Gérôme also suggested that the highlight on the order which appears on his left breast and is not particularly noticeable in the photograph, be less bright. The order remains brightly lit, possibly Ferris’s tribute to Gérôme.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
date made
1899
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14396.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14396.01

House of the Mountebank, Cairo, Egypt

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1870
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14399.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14399.01

Stern Winter

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1894
original artist
Sloan, John
ID Number
GA.22281
catalog number
22281
accession number
272554

Journal of ... Thomas Chalkley ...

Book, leather over boards.Binding broken.A Journal or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, and Christian Experiences of ...Thomas Chalkley; bound with The Works of Thomas Chalkley, Part II only (no Part I). Both imprints Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D.
Description (Brief)
Book, leather over boards.Binding broken.
A Journal or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, and Christian Experiences of ...Thomas Chalkley; bound with The Works of Thomas Chalkley, Part II only (no Part I). Both imprints Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1749
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1749
associated date
1749
printer
Franklin, Benjamin
ID Number
GA.16522
accession number
118225
catalog number
16522

Union type chest Headquarters Army of Potomac, Printing Department, No. 6, about 1863

This type chest, measuring roughly 1’H x 2.5’W x 1.5’D, was purchased from L. Johnson & Company for the Printing Department of the Union Army of the Potomac. At least five other type chests were made for that unit.
Description
This type chest, measuring roughly 1’H x 2.5’W x 1.5’D, was purchased from L. Johnson & Company for the Printing Department of the Union Army of the Potomac. At least five other type chests were made for that unit. The top of the chest reads Headquarters Army of Potomac, Printing Department, No. 6. A virtually identical chest markedNo. 5 is displayed at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1863
maker
L. Johnson & Company
issuing authority
Army of the Potomac
ID Number
1982.0203.2739
accession number
1982.0203
catalog number
1982.0203.2739

Samuel B. Wylie

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
graphic artist
Sartain, John
original artist
Neagle, John
ID Number
GA.15777
catalog number
15777
accession number
94830

Christopher Columbus Dying

Sixteen-year-old Gerome Ferris etched this print in 1879 after his own painting of the dying Christopher Columbus, 1506 Last Days of C. Columbus at Vallodolid.
Description
Sixteen-year-old Gerome Ferris etched this print in 1879 after his own painting of the dying Christopher Columbus, 1506 Last Days of C. Columbus at Vallodolid. The current location of the painting is unknown, but the choice of topic anticipates Gerome’s future as a history painter, focusing on American narrative subjects.
After death, Christopher Columbus’s journeys were not over. His remains traveled from Vallodolid to Seville and in 1542 were taken to the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, colonized by Columbus after 1492. After a move to Havana, Cuba, they returned to Seville cathedral in 1898 where they are today.
The etching was printed on chine-collé, a very thin sheet of paper that accepts the image in passing through the press with a heavier sheet of backing paper to which is it glued during the printing.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
ID Number
GA.14450
accession number
94830
catalog number
14450

Portrait of Mother Moran

Mother Moran or Mary Higson Moran, shown in the signed pencil drawing, was the mother of Stephen Ferris’s wife Elizabeth Anastasia as well as the artists Thomas, Peter, Edward and John, Moran.
Description (Brief)
Mother Moran or Mary Higson Moran, shown in the signed pencil drawing, was the mother of Stephen Ferris’s wife Elizabeth Anastasia as well as the artists Thomas, Peter, Edward and John, Moran. For Gerome Ferris’s etching of this subject made in 1880, see GA*14435.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1867
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16657
catalog number
16657
accession number
119780

Engraved woodblock of hand signs for the letters 'S' through 'Y'

This engraved woodblock shows hand signs for the letters "S" through "Y." The illustration was used in a publication relating to the gesture-signs and signals of the North American Indians by Garrick Mallery; it was prepared and printed by the Government Printing Office in Washin
Description
This engraved woodblock shows hand signs for the letters "S" through "Y." The illustration was used in a publication relating to the gesture-signs and signals of the North American Indians by Garrick Mallery; it was prepared 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
author
Mallery, Garrick
block maker
Grottenthaler, V.
ID Number
1980.0219.1368
catalog number
1980.0219.1368
accession number
1980.0219

Philadelphia Streetscape

Plynlimmon Court, Philadelphia. For other prints by Joseph Pennell, see 14228.01 and 14230. Pennell credits Stephen Ferris with teaching him to etch in 1879.Currently not on view
Description
Plynlimmon Court, Philadelphia. For other prints by Joseph Pennell, see 14228.01 and 14230. Pennell credits Stephen Ferris with teaching him to etch in 1879.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1880
graphic artist
Pennell, Joseph
ID Number
GA.14229
accession number
94830
catalog number
14229

Arab Soldier

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1870
date made
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
ID Number
GA.14441.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14441.01

Portrait of a Moroccan Man

Unsigned pencil study made at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial ExhibitionCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Unsigned pencil study made at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876-08-07
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16691
catalog number
16691
accession number
119780

Portrait of P. Ordire

Signed and dated pencil drawing of a model named P. Ordire in 1904Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Signed and dated pencil drawing of a model named P. Ordire in 1904
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1904
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16673
catalog number
16673
accession number
119780

Adam and Eve

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.
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

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