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.

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1700
ID Number
2014.0250.53.01
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.53.01
A letter opener made of cream colored celluloid. Advertising copy for "The Hub," a clothier in Chicago, is on the blade. The handle is a molded head of a clown, finely detailed and with hand-painted features."Henry C.
Description (Brief)
A letter opener made of cream colored celluloid. Advertising copy for "The Hub," a clothier in Chicago, is on the blade. The handle is a molded head of a clown, finely detailed and with hand-painted features.
"Henry C. Lytton and Sons Company, popularly known as "The Hub," was one of the city's premier clothing stores during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The main store was originally located on the northwest corner of State and Jackson Streets in Chicago's Loop. In 1912, the store moved into the newly built Lytton Building at 235-243 South State Street. Though specializing in men's clothing, The Hub also had retail sales departments devoted to women's clothing, children's wear, shoes, and other accessories."
Source: "Jazz Age Chicago: Urban Leisure from 1893 to 1945"
http://chicago.urban-history.org/ven/dss/the_hub.shtml
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1887-1930
ID Number
2006.0098.0898
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.0898
Lithograph by Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945), pencil signed 'Kollwitz' at lower R.
Description
Lithograph by Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945), pencil signed 'Kollwitz' at lower R. The title, Saatfrüchte Sollen Nicht Vermahlen Werden, is translated from German as "Seed Grain Shall Not Be Milled" or as "Grain for Sowing Shall Not Be Milled." It is a quotation from Goethe that Kollwitz originally used in a 1919 open letter protesting the continuation of World War I. This print, made in 1942, is a response to the Nazi edict that children were to be recruited for the German army.
The lithograph is Kollwitz's last print, one of three known copies of this edition. The lithographic stone was destroyed in the 1943 bombing of Berlin, which partially damaged Kollwitz's studio. Kollwitz died two years later, days before the end of the war she so strongly opposed.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1942
maker
Kollwitz, Kaethe
ID Number
GA.22069
catalog number
22069
accession number
265104
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1700
ID Number
2014.0250.53.02
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.53.02
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1880
ID Number
2014.0250.61
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.61
Number 64 in a series of animal subjects drawn from life by Ridinger. Trimmed; artist's initials at right below image.Currently not on view
Description
Number 64 in a series of animal subjects drawn from life by Ridinger. Trimmed; artist's initials at right below image.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1740
maker
Ridinger, Johann Elias
ID Number
1978.0534.23
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.23
This woodcut may be from John Varden's Washington Museum. Varden's collection included three Durer prints that were received at the Smithsonian in 1858 and sent to the Library of Congress with the Marsh Collection as part of the Smithsonian Deposit in 1865.
Description
This woodcut may be from John Varden's Washington Museum. Varden's collection included three Durer prints that were received at the Smithsonian in 1858 and sent to the Library of Congress with the Marsh Collection as part of the Smithsonian Deposit in 1865. The Men's Bath was one of three Durers returned to SI in 1888.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1490s
maker
Durer, Albrecht
ID Number
1978.0534.06
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.06
Number 63 in a series of animal subjects drawn from life by Ridinger. Trimmed; artist's initials at right below image.Currently not on view
Description
Number 63 in a series of animal subjects drawn from life by Ridinger. Trimmed; artist's initials at right below image.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1740
maker
Ridinger, Johann Elias
ID Number
1978.0534.22
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.22
The sea god Glaucus (half-male, half-sea serpent) at right pursues the nymph Scylla who flees to the left. Reversed copy after Rosa's etching with "inv." added and numeral "61" engraved in plate at lower right.
Description
The sea god Glaucus (half-male, half-sea serpent) at right pursues the nymph Scylla who flees to the left. Reversed copy after Rosa's etching with "inv." added and numeral "61" engraved in plate at lower right. Probably etched during the 17th century by Johann Jakob von Sandrart as he is credited with a series of prints after Rosa made in reverse with numbers added.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
17th century
original artist
Rosa, Salvator
etcher
Sandrart, Johann Jakob von
ID Number
1978.0534.18
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.18
Plate 32 from Betrachtung der wilden Thiere mit beygefügter vortrefflicher Poesie des hochberühmten Herrn Barthold Heinrich Brockes/Study of wild animals with excellent poetry by the renowned Mr Barthold Heinrich Brockes, engraved and published by Ridinger, 1736.Currently not on
Description
Plate 32 from Betrachtung der wilden Thiere mit beygefügter vortrefflicher Poesie des hochberühmten Herrn Barthold Heinrich Brockes/Study of wild animals with excellent poetry by the renowned Mr Barthold Heinrich Brockes, engraved and published by Ridinger, 1736.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1736
maker
Ridinger, Johann Elias
ID Number
1978.0534.10
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.10
Phytalus, kneeling at right, receives the fig tree from the goddess Ceres, standing at left, as a reward for his hospitality. Reversed copy after Rosa's etching with "inv." added and numeral "66" engraved in plate at lower right.
Description
Phytalus, kneeling at right, receives the fig tree from the goddess Ceres, standing at left, as a reward for his hospitality. Reversed copy after Rosa's etching with "inv." added and numeral "66" engraved in plate at lower right. Probably etched during the 17th century by Johann Jakob von Sandrart as he is credited with a series of prints after Rosa made in reverse with numbers added.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
17th century
original artist
Rosa, Salvator
graphic artist
Sandrart, Johann Jakob von
ID Number
1978.0534.19
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.19
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a wagon filled with flowers, pulled by two dogs whose traces are garlands of flowers. The celluloid parts are hand-painted.
Description (Brief)
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a wagon filled with flowers, pulled by two dogs whose traces are garlands of flowers. The celluloid parts are hand-painted. The dogs fold back behind the wagon.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2006.0098.0097
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.0097
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a wagon filled with flowers, pulled by two birds holding the traces in their beaks. The decorative parts have been hand-painted.
Description (Brief)
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a wagon filled with flowers, pulled by two birds holding the traces in their beaks. The decorative parts have been hand-painted. The birds fold back behind the wagon in order to mail the card. A message and an address are on the back. The card is also stamped and the stamp has been cancelled.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2006.0098.0096
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.0096
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a pot of flowers set on a stand with a hen, chicks, and eggs folding out from the stand. All celluloid parts are hand-painted.
Description (Brief)
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The celluloid parts are a pot of flowers set on a stand with a hen, chicks, and eggs folding out from the stand. All celluloid parts are hand-painted. The back has a message and addressee, but was not stamped.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2006.0098.0100
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.0100
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The decorative elements include a vase, with doves perched on its base. Inside the vase are pansies.
Description (Brief)
A postcard made of paper and decorated with movable celluloid parts on the front. The decorative elements include a vase, with doves perched on its base. Inside the vase are pansies. It appears at first that there is one flower in the vase, but the pansies unfold to reveal two flowers behind the one in front. The flowers and other parts are hand-painted.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2006.0098.0095
accession number
2006.0098
catalog number
2006.0098.0095

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.