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 postcard view of the Garden of Mission Santa Barbara was published by the Edward H. Mitchell company of San Francisco about 1908, as a photomechanical lithograph. The Edward H.
Description (Brief)
This postcard view of the Garden of Mission Santa Barbara was published by the Edward H. Mitchell company of San Francisco about 1908, as a photomechanical lithograph. The Edward H. Mitchell company published postcards between about 1900 and 1928.
Founded in 1786, Mission Santa Barbara was the tenth of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions established in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission was built to convert American Indians of the Chumash tribe to Catholicism.
Today the mission serves as a parish church and includes a museum, a Franciscan friary, or monastery, and a retreat site.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
graphic artist
Mitchell, Edward H.
ID Number
GA.24880.016
catalog number
24880.016
accession number
1978.0801
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The operator pushes the key’s lever down briefly to make a short signal, a dot, or holds the lever down for a moment to make a slightly longer signal, a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. This key has a switch on the side called a circuit-closer that takes the key off-line when not in use.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
J. H. Bunnell & Co.
ID Number
2013.3040.09
nonaccession number
2013.3040
catalog number
2013.3040.09
This wooden and brass scale model of an 18th-century English common press dates from the late 19th-century.
Description (Brief)
This wooden and brass scale model of an 18th-century English common press dates from the late 19th-century. It is stamped on its side "244884."
The model was made by the Patent Office for their own reference and exhibition purposes.
Transfer from the Department of the Interior, 1906.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
Late 19th century
date made
late 19th century
maker
unknown
unknown
ID Number
GA.11013
accession number
46812
catalog number
11013
accession number
46812
Telegraph keys are electrical switches used to send coded messages that travel as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Due to special difficulties in sending pulses through long underwater cables, so-called double-current keys were used.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical switches used to send coded messages that travel as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Due to special difficulties in sending pulses through long underwater cables, so-called double-current keys were used. Instead of the short dots and long dashes of land-line telegraphs, submarine telegraphs sent positive pulses and negative pulses that made the receiver move right or left. The operator pressed one lever on the key to send a positive pulse and another to send a negative pulse. The code consisted of the sequence of left and right movements recorded on a paper tape. This particular key was used in testing insulation at Tufts University in the years around 1910.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1890
ca 1903
maker
Queen and Company
ID Number
EM.328049
catalog number
328049
accession number
270107
collector/donor number
13
Telegraph relays amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash.
Description
Telegraph relays amplified electrical signals in a telegraph line. Telegraph messages traveled as a series of electrical pulses through a wire from a transmitter to a receiver. Short pulses made a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The pulses faded in strength as they traveled through the wire, to the point where the incoming signal was too weak to directly operate a receiving sounder or register. A relay detected a weak signal and used a battery to strengthen the signal so that the receiver would operate.
Box relays were most often used by linemen or station operators for testing purposes or where a local battery was not available. The covering box acted as a resonator that amplified the sound of the relay’s light-weight armature, making the signal audible without a sounder. This unusual miniature unit was made by the donor and was reportedly used briefly on the line between Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1900
ID Number
EM.313149
catalog number
313149
accession number
177205
A drawing in pencil signed “C. Schuessele” in purplish ink with what might be a stampCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
A drawing in pencil signed “C. Schuessele” in purplish ink with what might be a stamp
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
original artist
Schussele, Christian
ID Number
GA.16631
catalog number
16631
accession number
119780
This bench-top roller proof press (no stand) was made about 1900. The press has a width of 10.5 inches and a length of 30 inches; its cylinder diameter is 9 inches; its bed measures 10 inches by 31 inches.
Description (Brief)
This bench-top roller proof press (no stand) was made about 1900. The press has a width of 10.5 inches and a length of 30 inches; its cylinder diameter is 9 inches; its bed measures 10 inches by 31 inches. It sports cast letters reading “Challenge,” for the Challenge Machinery Company, on the end of the bed.
Donated by Edward Alfriend, 1986.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
Challenge Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1986.0975.081
accession number
1986.0975
catalog number
1986.0975.081
This sheet-fed rotary, offset press was built in 1903 by Ira Rubel of Nutley, New Jersey. Its cylinder measures 36 inches in diameter.The Rubel offset press was the earliest of several rotary, offset machines produced in the first decade of the twentieth century.
Description (Brief)
This sheet-fed rotary, offset press was built in 1903 by Ira Rubel of Nutley, New Jersey. Its cylinder measures 36 inches in diameter.
The Rubel offset press was the earliest of several rotary, offset machines produced in the first decade of the twentieth century. It was invented in 1903 by Ira Washington Rubel, the owner of a small paper mill and lithographic shop in Nutley, New Jersey. No businessman himself, Rubel formed a partnership early in 1906 with a Chicago lithographer, Alex Sherwood, setting up the Sherbel Syndicate as a monopoly to distribute the press. Sherbel presses were built for the syndicate by the Potter Printing Press Company of Plainfield, New Jersey. The syndicate failed later that year, and the press was redesigned and sold as the Potter offset press, becoming the chief rival to the Harris offset press. Eventually, in 1926, the Potter and Harris companies were consolidated. Rubel himself went to England to promote his machine in 1907 and died there in 1908, at the age of 48.
This model was operated in Rubel’s plant in New York in 1904. In 1905 it was purchased by the Union Lithographic Company of San Francisco for $5,500 and shipped to California. It waited out the San Francisco earthquake and fire on a wharf in Oakland, and was put to work in 1907. The maximum speed of the press boasted about 2500 sheets per hour; the sheet size was 28 inches by 34 inches.
Donated by H. S. Crocker Co., Inc., 1969.
Citations: Western Printer & Lithographer, August 1952; “With a Chip on my Shoulder,” an unpublished talk by H. A. Porter given to the Detroit Litho Club, 14 December 1950; Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Date made
1903
date made
ca 1903
maker
Rubel, Ira W.
ID Number
GA.23002
accession number
286378
catalog number
GA*23002
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1894
1910
about 1804
associated date
1890 - 1900
graphic artist
unknown
ID Number
2014.0037.23
catalog number
2014.0037.23
2014.0037.23
2014.0037.23
accession number
2014.0037
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. Horace G. Martin patented a practical semi-automatic telegraph key in 1903 and his company dominated the market for these devices.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. Horace G. Martin patented a practical semi-automatic telegraph key in 1903 and his company dominated the market for these devices. Keys like Martin's "Vibroplex" automatically produced rapid Morse codes dots by using a weighted pendulum to quickly make and break contact in the electrical circuit. The operator would make the dashes manually, but could send much faster than with an ordinary key.
Stamped on label: "Trade The Vibroplex Mark / Pat. June 30.03 / Aug.9.04 / Jan.22.07 / Others Pending / Horace G. Martin / New York - U.S.A." and "11875". Faded decorative painted marks on base. A semi-automatic key with switch, two binding posts.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1908
maker
Martin, Horace G.
ID Number
EM.320853
catalog number
320853
accession number
241556
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. This sounder was made for the British Post Office. Unlike in the United States where privately owned companies like Western Union controlled the telegraph system, many other countries considered telegraph systems to be public property and left them to government control.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
British Insulated & Helsby Company, Ltd.
ID Number
EM.332373
serial number
9599
accession number
294351
catalog number
332373
A drawing in pencil on mauve paper, signed “C. Schuessele” in purplish ink with what might be a stampCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
A drawing in pencil on mauve paper, signed “C. Schuessele” in purplish ink with what might be a stamp
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
original artist
Schussele, Christian
ID Number
GA.16632
catalog number
16632
accession number
119780
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. The date refers to US Patent #538816, issued to Jesse H. Bunnell for an improved "Telegraph Sounder". In this patent, Bunnell claimed to increase the volume of the sound produced by constructing the sounder in such a way as to prevent the weight of the electromagnets from damping out the vibration of the armature. In essence, this acted as a built-in resonator.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
J. H. Bunnell & Co.
ID Number
EM.332407
accession number
294351
catalog number
332407
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The operator moved the handle back and forth to send the message.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The operator moved the handle back and forth to send the message. Called a pump-handle key, Charles Shirley, Shirley, a British citizen then living in Brooklyn, NY, patented this design in 1901. The heavy, detachable base gave Shirley a portable key that could be quickly placed in operation without clamps or other mounting hardware.
According to collecting curator George C. Maynard, the operator moved the handle back and forth to send the message. "This key is made for the use of operators who have 'lost their grip', or become afflicted with neurasthenia from long practice in the use of the ordinary Morse key which exercises one set of muscles only. This key enables operators to work with the hand and arm in many positions and thus prevent the strain caused by the ordinary key."
Painted floral design on metal base. Marked on key arm: "Patent no 685 co. (/) New York". Painted on top of base: "Patented (/) Dec. 24. 1901 (/) no. 689,426". Painted of side of base: "twentieth century portable key base (/) Foote, Pierson & Co Sole mfrs. (/) New York". "877" stamped on base near yoke.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1902
maker
Foote, Pierson & Co.
ID Number
EM.222139
catalog number
222139
serial number
877
accession number
42158
This small flatbed, cylinder press for braille printing, with four boxes of double-ended, braille-roman type, was likely manufactured in the late 19th century.
Description (Brief)
This small flatbed, cylinder press for braille printing, with four boxes of double-ended, braille-roman type, was likely manufactured in the late 19th century. Some of the type for the machine is marked "Allain Guillaume & Cie." The metal label on one type box reads: “Imprimerie pour aveugles / B.S.G.D.G. / systeme Ernest Vaughan / Directeur des Quinze-Vingts / Hachette & Cie. Paris.” The press is unmarked except for: “6131,” in the casting on both sides, and “CID,” stamped under the bed. The iron cylinder measures 2.26 inches in diameter. The wooden bed measures 8.25 inches by 20 inches. The overall press has a height of 10 inches, a width of 8.75 inches and a length of 20 inches.
Wooden type boxes with this press served the dual purpose of storage and chase. The lid on one side could be removed to expose the roman-letter end of the type, for composition. With that lid replaced the box could be flipped over and the lid on the other side removed, to expose the braille end for printing. Two wooden blocks fixed on the press bed held the type box firmly in place.
The donor was given this printing set in the 1940s by a religious organization. Parts of psalms are still set (in English) in the type boxes.
Donated by Ralph R. Hellerich, 1985.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 19th century
ca 1900
maker
unknown
unknown
ID Number
1985.0476.01
accession number
1985.0476
catalog number
1985.0476.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca. 1900
ID Number
2012.0093.12
accession number
2012.0093
catalog number
2012.0093.12
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. This sounder was made according to US Patent #678,395, issued 16 July 1901 to John J. Ghegan of Newark, NJ, and was assigned to Bunnell Company for whom Ghegan worked. The idea was to make adjusting the lever arm easier and more precise by the addition of a spring-loaded tuning mechanism. Part of the adjuster can be seen mounted on the base behind the arched yoke.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1905
maker
J. H. Bunnell & Co.
ID Number
EM.331501
model number
15-C
accession number
294351
catalog number
331501
This self-inking lever press was made by William Golding of Boston between 1873 and 1900. Traces of its gold decal decoration remain.
Description (Brief)
This self-inking lever press was made by William Golding of Boston between 1873 and 1900. Traces of its gold decal decoration remain. The press has a height of 29.5 inches a width of 16 inches and a depth of 16 inches; its chase measures 5 inches by 7.5 inches.
The Official series of presses included little hand-inking presses with 2 inch by 3 inch platens up to full-size jobbers. This model, the Official No. 3, was one of the most popular, and was copied over the years by other manufacturers. (See also Golding’s Official No. 6, a full-size platen jobber described elsewhere.)
Donated by Dr. and Mrs. Howard K. Ammerman, 1991.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
between 1873 and 1900
ca 1873 - 1900
maker
Golding Co.
ID Number
1991.0379.1
catalog number
1991.0379.1
accession number
1991.0379
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. This sounder was made according to US Patent #678,395, issued 16 July 1901 to John J. Ghegan of Newark, NJ, and was assigned to Bunnell Company for whom Ghegan worked. The idea was to make adjusting the lever arm easier and more precise by the addition of a spring-loaded tuning mechanism. Part of the adjuster can be seen mounted on the base behind the arched yoke.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1905
maker
J. H. Bunnell & Co.
ID Number
EM.331506
model number
15-C
accession number
294351
catalog number
331506
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The operator pushes the key’s lever down briefly to make a short signal, a dot, or holds the lever down for a moment to make a slightly longer signal, a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. This key has a switch on the side called a circuit-closer that takes the key off-line when not in use.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
ID Number
EM.331901
accession number
294351
catalog number
331901
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. 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.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. 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. The Mecograph Company created a right-angle semi-automatic telegraph key around 1906. They competed with Horace Martin's Vibroplex Company until Martin purchased Mecograph in 1914.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1908
associated date
1906
maker
Mecograph Company
ID Number
EM.320012
catalog number
320012
accession number
243907
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph keys are electrical on-off switches used to send messages in Morse code. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The operator pushes the key’s lever down briefly to make a short signal, a dot, or holds the lever down for a moment to make a slightly longer signal, a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. This key has a switch on the side called a circuit-closer that takes the key off-line when not in use.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
Thompson-Levering Co.
ID Number
EM.332378
accession number
294351
catalog number
332378
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash.
Description (Brief)
Telegraph sounders convert electrical pulses into audible sounds and are used to receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. Short pulses make a dot, slightly longer pulses make a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers. The pulses energize the sounder’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm. The arm makes a loud “click” when it strikes a crossbar and the operator translates the pattern of sounds into the original language. This miniature sounder was made by C. I. Ways as a working replica of a commercial sounder made by Bunnell and Company.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
C. I. Ways
ID Number
EM.313154
catalog number
313154
accession number
177205
This table-top, flatbed platen proofing press dates from the late 19th century. The press chase measures 6.25 inches by 9.25 inches; its height is 8 inches and width 10.75 inches.The little Comit (or Comet) press was sold and perhaps made by Robert S.
Description (Brief)
This table-top, flatbed platen proofing press dates from the late 19th century. The press chase measures 6.25 inches by 9.25 inches; its height is 8 inches and width 10.75 inches.
The little Comit (or Comet) press was sold and perhaps made by Robert S. Menamin, of Philadelphia, a publisher and printing equipment dealer, as a quick proofing press for wood engravers. Its bed is pushed under the platen by hand, and the platen is lowered by a crank-operated eccentric shaft. This particular press is alleged to have been used by missionaries in China.
Found in the collections, 1948.
Citation: Elizabeth M. Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996. Elizabeth M. Harris, "Personal Impressions, The Small Printing Press in Nineteenth-Century America," 2004.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 19th century
ca 1900
maker
unknown
ID Number
GA.19991
accession number
1948.179703
catalog number
19991

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