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: Pennsylvania

Philco Model 16B Cathedral Radio

America embraced a new technology in the wake of World War One: radio. The wide availability of affordable receivers allowed people across the country to access both local and national programming. Radio became so popular that even the Great Depression could hardly slow sales.
Description
America embraced a new technology in the wake of World War One: radio. The wide availability of affordable receivers allowed people across the country to access both local and national programming. Radio became so popular that even the Great Depression could hardly slow sales. Philco manufactured this model 16B “cathedral” style radio around 1933. The model 16B was an eleven-tube superheterodyne with two wave band receivers that could pick up broadcasts from as far away as Britain. The front of the case consists of a single speaker with four knobs—the station selector, tone control, wave band switcher, and the power and volume control.
date made
ca 1933
maker
Philco
ID Number
1986.0671.01
model number
16B
catalog number
1986.0671.01
accession number
1986.0671

Tomb of Washington/ Mount Vernon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1832
referenced
Washington, George
original artist
Smith, J. R.
designer
Lehman, George
ID Number
2014.0250.46
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.46

Margreth Feb ... 1782

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1817
ca 1782
ca 1795
maker
unknown
ID Number
GA.378092.1
accession number
1936.140776

Study of Man in a Suit

Stephen Ferris made his sketch in a class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1879. (His son Gerome had been enrolled at the Academy since 1878).
Description (Brief)
Stephen Ferris made his sketch in a class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1879. (His son Gerome had been enrolled at the Academy since 1878). On the verso there is an outline sketch of bare- breasted woman with large necklace and long hair, holding a bowl on her left hip with cup raised in right hand.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879-02-14
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16688
catalog number
16688
accession number
119780

birth and baptismal certificate

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1808
associated date
1808 10 02
associated user
unknown
unknown
ID Number
1987.0006.09
accession number
1987.0006
catalog number
1987.0006.09

copy book letter learning

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1783
associated date
1783 03 18
ID Number
1987.0006.05-06
accession number
1987.0006
catalog number
1987.0006.05-06
1987.0006.05 1987.0006.05-06

Ruined Brewery on Girard Avenue

Were it not identified as a brewery on Girard Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the building in this unsigned 1879 watercolor and pencil study could easily be mistaken for one of Stephen Ferris’s Moorish subjects from his trip to southern Spain in 1881.
Description (Brief)
Were it not identified as a brewery on Girard Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the building in this unsigned 1879 watercolor and pencil study could easily be mistaken for one of Stephen Ferris’s Moorish subjects from his trip to southern Spain in 1881. There are two more watercolor studies of the brewery; see: GA*14546 and GA*14547.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14540
catalog number
14540
accession number
94830

birth and baptismal certificate

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1807
associated date
1807 10 30
associated user
unknown
unknown
graphic artist
Krebs, Johann Jacob Friedrich
ID Number
1987.0006.03
accession number
1987.0006
catalog number
1987.0006.03

birth and baptismal certificate

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1808
associated date
1808 07 30
associated user
unknown
unknown
maker
unknown
ID Number
1987.0006.08
accession number
1987.0006
catalog number
1987.0006.08

Chromolithograph of "Fort Massachusetts at the Foot of the Sierra Blanca Valley of San Luis"

This tinted lithograph of “Fort Massachusetts at the Foot of the Sierra Blanca Valley of San Luis" was produced by Thomas Sinclair (1805-1881), Philadelphia, after a sketch by John Mix Stanley (1814-1872) and an original sketch by expedition artist R. H. Kern (1821-1853).
Description
This tinted lithograph of “Fort Massachusetts at the Foot of the Sierra Blanca Valley of San Luis" was produced by Thomas Sinclair (1805-1881), Philadelphia, after a sketch by John Mix Stanley (1814-1872) and an original sketch by expedition artist R. H. Kern (1821-1853). It was printed as a plate in Volume II following page 38, in the "Report of Explorations for a Route for the Pacific Railroad, by Captain J. W. Gunnison (1812-1853), Topographical Engineers, Near the 38th and 39th Parallels of North Latitude, from the Mouth of the Kansas River, Missouri to the Sevier Lake in the Great Basin" by Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith (1818-1881), Third Artillery.
The volume was printed as part of the "Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" in 1855 by A. P. O. Nicholson (1808-1876) of Washington, D.C.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1855
engraver
Stanley, John Mix
artist
Kern, Richard H.
printer
Sinclair, T.
publisher
U.S. War Department
author
Beckwith, Edward Griffin
Gunnison, John Williams
printer
Tucker, Beverley
publisher
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Command
ID Number
GA.10729.27
accession number
62261

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

Joseph Leidy

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Gutekunst, Frederic
ID Number
GA.02205
catalog number
02205
accession number
21482

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

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

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

Portrait of Mrs. Llewellyn

Stephen Ferris noted that Mrs. Llewellyn lived in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, and was 100 years old in October, 1879, when, presumably, he made the signed pencil drawing.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Stephen Ferris noted that Mrs. Llewellyn lived in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, and was 100 years old in October, 1879, when, presumably, he made the signed pencil drawing.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1879-10
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16680
catalog number
16680
accession number
119780

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

Portrait of a Moor

The 1876 Centennial Exposition brought people and exhibits from around the world to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Stephen Ferris, a resident of the city, visited the site on August 7 and recorded in pencil the face of this man, whom he called Maure [Moor].
Description
The 1876 Centennial Exposition brought people and exhibits from around the world to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Stephen Ferris, a resident of the city, visited the site on August 7 and recorded in pencil the face of this man, whom he called Maure [Moor]. The man may have been one of the workers associated with an exhibit from Tunisia or Morocco. Ferris was very interested in North African subject matter at this time, due to his fondness for the works of Mariano Fortuny.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16664
catalog number
GA*16664
accession number
119,780

S. J. Ferris Self-portrait

Stephen James Ferris etched this self-portrait in October of 1880, probably as one of the prints exchanged by members of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers.
Description
Stephen James Ferris etched this self-portrait in October of 1880, probably as one of the prints exchanged by members of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. Ferris was a founding member of the society, which formed earlier that year, three years after the establishment of the New York Etching Club, the first in the United States. Ferris had seen the etching process demonstrated in 1860 by John Sartain, an engraver. In 1875 Ferris produced one of his earliest etchings to be commercially published in the United States, a portrait of Mariano Fortuny (1838–1874).
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1880
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14388.02
accession number
94830
catalog number
14388

Joseph Leidy

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Gutekunst, Frederic
ID Number
GA.02206
catalog number
02206
accession number
21482

Portrait of Electa Kinney Ferris

Stephen Ferris made this pencil portrait of his mother from memory in 1890. She had died in 1848 near Yorkville, Illinois, after the birth of her fourteenth child, when Ferris was a boy of thirteen.
Description
Stephen Ferris made this pencil portrait of his mother from memory in 1890. She had died in 1848 near Yorkville, Illinois, after the birth of her fourteenth child, when Ferris was a boy of thirteen. Contrary to a contemporary biography’s claim that he was orphaned at ten, Ferris belonged to a large family which became even larger with his father’s remarriage. As a boy Ferris lived with a maternal uncle who offered him a chance to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from the age of seventeen.
date made
1898
original artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.16646
catalog number
16646
accession number
119780

Portrait of Mariano Fortuny

This profile portrait of Spanish painter and graphic artist Mariano Fortuny is one of two in the NMAH collection that Stephen Ferris made in 1875, soon after Fortuny’s untimely death at age thirty-six in Rome, Italy, on November 21, 1874.Gerome Ferris, in a note on the mount, ref
Description
This profile portrait of Spanish painter and graphic artist Mariano Fortuny is one of two in the NMAH collection that Stephen Ferris made in 1875, soon after Fortuny’s untimely death at age thirty-six in Rome, Italy, on November 21, 1874.
Gerome Ferris, in a note on the mount, refers to the print as an etching on glass. According to a contemporary, Stephen Ferris “was one of the first artists to practice etching on glass as it was miscalled at the time.” The cliché-verre process, as it known today, originated in France in the nineteenth century. The artist coats a glass plate with an opaque substance and then draws an image on it with a pointed instrument such as an etching needle. He then lays the plate image-side down on a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposes it to light.
This print and a second portrait of Fortuny by Ferris were the only two American etched portraits shown in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The revival of interest in etching that began in Europe during the 1860s did not really take off in the United States until about 1880, but visitors to the exhibition saw a modest number of American etchings at the beginning of the movement.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1873
1875
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14552
catalog number
14552
accession number
94830

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

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

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