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.

Resource Type: Etchings (prints)

The steer

Etching on laid paper, trimmed. The outline of the animal is pricked, perhaps for tracing or transfer.Currently not on view
Description
Etching on laid paper, trimmed. The outline of the animal is pricked, perhaps for tracing or transfer.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
17th century
original artist
Roos, Johann Heinrich
ID Number
1978.0534.16
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.16

Man in an arbor (after)

Etching, trimmed inside plate mark. Reversed copy by unknown artist after Rembrandt. Signed in plate "Rembrent f 1643." NHD 208, copy d, probably British, 18th century. For original print dated 1642, see Hind 194, Bartsch 257, Biorklund-Barnard 42-A.Currently not on view
Description
Etching, trimmed inside plate mark. Reversed copy by unknown artist after Rembrandt. Signed in plate "Rembrent f 1643." NHD 208, copy d, probably British, 18th century. For original print dated 1642, see Hind 194, Bartsch 257, Biorklund-Barnard 42-A.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1643
original artist
Rembrandt van Rijn
ID Number
1978.0534.36
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.36

Glaucus and Scylla

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

Mother with two children

Etching, 6th state after retouching. Trimmed to ruled border. Artist's monogram AvO faintly etched inside image at left. See Godefroy 14.Currently not on view
Description
Etching, 6th state after retouching. Trimmed to ruled border. Artist's monogram AvO faintly etched inside image at left. See Godefroy 14.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Ostade, Adriaen van
ID Number
1978.0534.30
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.30

Lioness protecting her young

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

The Baptism of the Eunuch

Top margin trimmed; ruled ink border on all sides. Signed in plate lower right: "Rembrandt f. 1641" see NHD 186, III; Bartsch 98, Hind 182, Biorklund-Barnard 41-E. "B 98" on verso in pencil in what looks like George P. Marsh's hand.Currently not on view
Description
Top margin trimmed; ruled ink border on all sides. Signed in plate lower right: "Rembrandt f. 1641" see NHD 186, III; Bartsch 98, Hind 182, Biorklund-Barnard 41-E. "B 98" on verso in pencil in what looks like George P. Marsh's hand.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1641
maker
Rembrandt van Rijn
ID Number
1978.0534.44
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.44

The Ringball Player

Signed in the plate lower left: "Rembrandt f. 1654." See NHD 282, II; Bartsch 125, Hind 272, Biorklund-Barnard 54-A. Once known as The Game of Kolef or Golf; now titled The Ringball Player/Het Klosbaantje.Currently not on view
Description
Signed in the plate lower left: "Rembrandt f. 1654." See NHD 282, II; Bartsch 125, Hind 272, Biorklund-Barnard 54-A. Once known as The Game of Kolef or Golf; now titled The Ringball Player/Het Klosbaantje.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1654
maker
Rembrandt van Rijn
ID Number
1978.0534.45
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.45

Ceres and Phytalus

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

Goats

Late impression or copy.Currently not on view
Description
Late impression or copy.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
17th century
maker
Berchem, Nicolaes
ID Number
1978.0534.20
catalog number
10095.01a
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.20

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

The father of the family

Etching by Charles Jacque after van Ostade.Several 19th-century European artists such as Jacque and Wilhelm Unger, etched copies of van Ostade's 17th-century works. Peasant subjects and genre scenes were popular See Le Blanc, v. II, p. 147 and Beraldi, v. 8, p.
Description
Etching by Charles Jacque after van Ostade.Several 19th-century European artists such as Jacque and Wilhelm Unger, etched copies of van Ostade's 17th-century works. Peasant subjects and genre scenes were popular See Le Blanc, v. II, p. 147 and Beraldi, v. 8, p. 180.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800s
graphic artist
Jacque, Charles Emile
original artist
Ostade, Adriaen van
printer
Delatre
publisher
Alliance des Arts
ID Number
GA.14695
catalog number
14695
accession number
94830

Putto driving a sea dragon

Signed: "Raph Urb inv in Aedibus Vaticanis"; "Romae apud Michaelem Angelum Maestri"Design for decorative panel from the chambers of Cardinal Bibbiena in the VaticanCurrently not on view
Description
Signed: "Raph Urb inv in Aedibus Vaticanis"; "Romae apud Michaelem Angelum Maestri"
Design for decorative panel from the chambers of Cardinal Bibbiena in the Vatican
Location
Currently not on view
original artist
Raphael
graphic artist
Maestri, Michelangelo
ID Number
GA.08509
catalog number
08509
accession number
29209

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

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