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.

Date: 1860s

Arlington Heights near Washington

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1876
1869
maker
Greatorex, Eliza Pratt
ID Number
2012.0093.22.07
accession number
2012.0093
catalog number
2012.0093.22.07

Columbian press

This super-royal Columbian press was made by Ritchie and Son of Edinburgh, Scotland in about 1860.
Description (Brief)
This super-royal Columbian press was made by Ritchie and Son of Edinburgh, Scotland in about 1860. The maker's label reads: "RITCHIE & SON / MAKERS / EDINBURGH." The press has a height of 89 inches a width overall of 53 inches and a length overall of 66 inches; its platen measures 21 inches by 29 inches.
The Columbian press was invented in 1813 by George Clymer
(1754-1834), a Philadelphia mechanic. Clymer had begun building wooden presses in 1800, then later, versions of the new iron presses from Europe. His Columbian was original, not only for its extravagant design but also for its levers and counterweights. It was well received, although its cost, at $400, was more than twice the price of a wooden press. Clymer was not satisfied with the market he found in the United States, perhaps because printers were not yet ready to give up their old wooden presses, so in 1818 he took his business to England and found much greater success. His first English presses carried his own name, and in 1825 William Dixon joined the company, and the presses showed both names. From the 1840s, they were manufactured by several dozen companies all over Europe.
Although Clymer had made and sold presses in Philadelphia, no
American Columbians are known to survive there. The Washington press came to occupy the place, in nineteenth-century American printing offices, that the Columbian and Albion were to hold in Britain. The only Columbians existing in the United States in recent year were made in Europe, and brought here some time later.
Donated by Taylor & Taylor, San Francisco, 1961.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Description
The Columbian iron hand press was invented in 1813 by George Clymer (1754–1834), a Philadelphia mechanic. From about 1800 Clymer built wooden presses and versions of new iron presses from Europe. The extravagant design, incorporating levers and counterweights, was quite original, but Clymer did not find a market in the United States. Perhaps printers were not ready to give up their old wooden presses. He moved to England in 1818 and acquired a partner. By the 1840s their presses were being manufactured by several dozen firms across Europe, including Ritchie & Son of Edinburgh, which made this press about 1860. It is a super-royal Columbian and its platen size is 21 by 29 inches.
Clymer's Columbian presses were widely used in European printing offices during the 19th century, and today they are found in a number of European museums. Although Clymer made several dozen presses before leaving Philadelphia, no American Columbians are known to survive. The only Columbians in the U.S. today were made in Europe and brought over here some time later. American printers preferred the Washington iron hand press, which occupied the place in 19th-century American printing offices that the Columbian and Albion presses held in Britain.
The Columbian press is covered with symbols, including its name as a reference to the United States. An American eagle in full relief serves as a counterweight at the top of the frame. He holds in his talons Jove's thunderbolts combined with the olive branch of peace and the cornucopia of plenty. The press was adopted in 1819 as the emblem of Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Typographical Society, a local union of journeyman printers, and it represented their republican sentiments both in the larger political sense and as their expression of pride and independence in their craft. The Society met at the "Press and Eagle" Tavern, and members carried banners emblazoned with images of the Columbian press in their parades.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1860
Associated Name
Clymer, George
maker
Ritchie & Son
ID Number
GA.21028
accession number
1961.237265
catalog number
GA*21028

Telegraph Key

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.
Curator George Maynard, who collected this key in 1897, reported: this key was "used to determine differences of longitude between principal meridians of the British Islands and the principal meridians of the United States by means of telegraphic cables from Brest, France, to Duxbury, Mass., to Cambridge, to Washington, D.C., 1869-1872."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1868
maker
Charles Williams, Jr.
ID Number
EM.181671
catalog number
181671
accession number
32985

Meditation

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1860
graphic artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
ID Number
GA.16775
catalog number
16775
accession number
119780

Gordon Franklin jobber

This old-style platen jobber was made by George P. Gordon, of New York, in about 1863. It was painted green.
Description (Brief)
This old-style platen jobber was made by George P. Gordon, of New York, in about 1863. It was painted green. Its chase measures 6 inches by 10 inches.
The Gordon Franklin was the single most famous and influential jobbing press of the nineteenth century.
George Phineas Gordon (1810-1878) was a printer who started building and patenting presses for job printers beginning in 1850. The most celebrated of his many presses was the Franklin, so called because Gordon, a spiritualist, said that Ben Franklin had described it to him in a dream. By 1858 this press was essentially in its final form, but over the next decades Gordon continued to modify and re-patent it. Upon the expiration of his patents, other manufacturers moved in with their own versions of the press.
This early example of a Gordon Franklin has neither impression throw-off mechanism nor a gate to lock the platen into position at the point of impression, two features used in Gordon’s later presses.
The press was lent to the Museum in 1968 under the catalog number 22318.
Donated by Neal Bezoenik, 1994.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
circa 1858
date made
ca 1863
circa 1863
maker
Gordon, George P.
ID Number
1994.0380.01
catalog number
1994.0380.01
accession number
1994.0380

Clark telegraph repeater patent model

Telegraph repeaters 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 repeaters 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, limiting the distance a message could travel. Repeaters remedied that problem by detecting a weak signal and using a local power source to re-energize and re-transmit the signal down the line.
This non-operating model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office by inventor James J. Clark of Philadelphia. In July 1860, Clark received patent #29247 for his "Improvement in Telegraphic Repeaters." Clark added an extra magnet to the local circuit of the repeater. Charles Davis and Frank Rae described Clark's repeater in 1877, noting that by then it was obsolete. "The relays have [longer armature levers that respond to extra magnets but] the sounders do the repeating. ... It was very good and was extensively used at one time."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860
maker
Clark, James J.
ID Number
EM.251254
catalog number
251254
accession number
48865
patent number
29247

Patent Model of a Hand Printing Press for Amateur Printers

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a hand-operated portable printing press was which granted patent number 79751. The press consisted of a box, the lid being the platen, operated by a hand lever. Built-in grippers released the paper when the lid was lifted.
Description (Brief)
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a hand-operated portable printing press was which granted patent number 79751. The press consisted of a box, the lid being the platen, operated by a hand lever. Built-in grippers released the paper when the lid was lifted. The model is accompanied by a card bearing the inscription "Little Giant Hand Printing Press.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1868
patent date
1868-07-07
maker
Hall, H. M.
Espey, George W.
ID Number
GA.89797.079751
patent number
079751
accession number
089797
catalog number
GA*89797.079751

Lithograph of "Cascades of the Columbia"

This tinted lithograph of “Cascades of the Columbia" was produced by Sarony, Major & Knapp (fl. 1857-1867) after an original sketch by John Mix Stanley (1814-1872). It was printed as Plate XLV in Volume XII, Book I, following page 155, in the "General Report" by Isaac I.
Description (Brief)
This tinted lithograph of “Cascades of the Columbia" was produced by Sarony, Major & Knapp (fl. 1857-1867) after an original sketch by John Mix Stanley (1814-1872). It was printed as Plate XLV in Volume XII, Book I, following page 155, in the "General Report" by Isaac I. Stevens (1818-1862) in the "Report of Explorations for a Route for the Pacific Railroad near the 47th and 49th Parallels of North Latitude, from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Puget Sound," 1855.
The volume was published as part of the "Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a Railroad from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean," published as a twelve volume set in the mid-1850s to 1860. Volume 12 was printed in 1860 by Thomas H. Ford (1814-1868).
Location
Currently not on view
date of book publication
1860
graphic artist
Sarony, Major, & Knapp
original artist
Stanley, John Mix
graphic artist
Sarony, Major, & Knapp
original artist
Stanley, John Mix
author
Stevens, Isaac Ingalls
printer
Ford, Thomas H.
graphic artist
Sarony, Major, & Knapp
publisher
U.S. War Department
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Command
ID Number
GA.24834
catalog number
24834
accession number
1978.0612

Lowe Press No. 2 press

Samuel W. Lowe of Philadelphia invented the Lowe printing press, an unusual conical cylinder press patented in 1856. Like Adams's Cottage printing press, it did not include a frisket and included an automatic tympan.
Description
Samuel W. Lowe of Philadelphia invented the Lowe printing press, an unusual conical cylinder press patented in 1856. Like Adams's Cottage printing press, it did not include a frisket and included an automatic tympan. The rights for the press were sold in 1858 to Joseph Watson, who marketed both presses in Boston and Philadelphia.
The Lowe printing press does not appear to have been as heavily advertised as the Adams, although the company notes that we have sold many presses … to druggists … in this country and in other lands. Every boy and business man seems to be having one.
As for portability, the Lowe was more than a third lighter than the Adams, ranging from between 12 and 120 pounds as compared to Adams's press at between 100 and 400 pounds. The Lowe used a simpler frame and relatively thin castings.
date made
ca 1860
patent date
1856
maker
Lowe, Samuel W.
ID Number
1988.0650.03
accession number
1988.0650
catalog number
1988.0650.03

Telegraph Register

This telegraph register is serial number 80 made by Charles T. Chester of New York. Set on a marble base, the unit was driven by a weight suspended by a string that passed through the hole in the base. Like a clock, the key was used to rewind the mechanism.
Description (Brief)
This telegraph register is serial number 80 made by Charles T. Chester of New York. Set on a marble base, the unit was driven by a weight suspended by a string that passed through the hole in the base. Like a clock, the key was used to rewind the mechanism. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
maker
Chester, Charles T.
ID Number
EM.335587
catalog number
335587
accession number
323535

Ethan Allen and Mate and Dexter

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1867
maker
Currier & Ives
ID Number
GA.06474
accession number
70138
catalog number
6474

Arab Mourning

Mariano Fortuny captured the intense grief of an Arab mourning a dead friend in this stark 1866 etching Arabe Veillant le Corps de son Ami.Fortuny had witnessed Moroccan life at first hand during several visits, the first in 1859, when he accompanied the troops of Spanish General
Description
Mariano Fortuny captured the intense grief of an Arab mourning a dead friend in this stark 1866 etching Arabe Veillant le Corps de son Ami.
Fortuny had witnessed Moroccan life at first hand during several visits, the first in 1859, when he accompanied the troops of Spanish General Juan Prim. A nineteenth-century critic praised Fortuny’s scratchy (egratigné) and gritty (grignoté) etching technique as very original and of the greatest interest. Another critic commented on the remarkable effect of color in the print. Even in black and white, Fortuny’s much admired sense of color is evident.
This print is one of twenty-eight Fortuny etchings issued by the Parisian publisher Goupil after the artist’s death in Rome at age thirty-six. Stephen Ferris, a great admirer of Fortuny, owned impressions of many of his prints.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1866
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
publisher
Goupil & Cie.
graphic artist
Delatre
ID Number
GA.16763
catalog number
16763
accession number
119780

Map of the Western States

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1865
ca 1872
ID Number
GA.04537
catalog number
04537
accession number
23155

The Sermon on the Mount

Initialed and dated watercolorCurrently not on view
Description (Brief)
Initialed and dated watercolor
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1866
original artist
Schussele, Christian
ID Number
GA.16641
catalog number
16641
accession number
119780

Antique Jewels

Jules Jacquemart reproduced these jewels in Bijoux Antiques (Musée Campana), working directly from the objects. He started by making detailed drawings or watercolors of the objects, but sometimes he etched them directly on the plate.
Description
Jules Jacquemart reproduced these jewels in Bijoux Antiques (Musée Campana), working directly from the objects. He started by making detailed drawings or watercolors of the objects, but sometimes he etched them directly on the plate. This print was considered a still life by Jacquemart’s contemporaries. One enthusiastic author even praised him as “the most marvellous etcher of still-life who ever existed in the world. In the power of imitating an object set before him he has distanced all past work and no living rival can approach him.” This etching originally appeared in 1863 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, which first published one of his etchings in 1859. Of the almost 400 prints Jacquemart made, about two-thirds reproduce objects.
The Museo Campana housed the art collection of the Marchese Giovanni Pietro Campana in Rome. When the collection was disbursed in 1861, France acquired a large part of the jewelry, which comprised mainly Etruscan, Greek, and Roman pieces, as well as some 19th-century work. The jewels were exhibited in Paris from 1862 and helped start a fashion for archeological jewelry. They can be viewed today in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1863
graphic artist
Jacquemart, Jules
printer
Delâtre
publisher
Gazette des Beaux-Arts
ID Number
GA.14602.01
catalog number
14602.01
accession number
94830

Portrait of Alexandre Tardieu

Louis-Pierre Henriquel-Dupont’s etching reproduces an 1825 drawing by J. A. D. Ingres (1780–1867) of Pierre-Alexandre Tardieu (1756–1844). The print appeared in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1860.
Description
Louis-Pierre Henriquel-Dupont’s etching reproduces an 1825 drawing by J. A. D. Ingres (1780–1867) of Pierre-Alexandre Tardieu (1756–1844). The print appeared in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1860. Tardieu came from a dynasty of distinguished graphic artists, which dated back to the beginning of the 18th century. He was especially known for his engraved portraits. Henriquel-Dupont, like the subject of his print, also was famous for his engravings and was considered by some the most celebrated engraver of 19th-century France.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1860
original artist
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
graphic artist
Henriquel-Dupont, Louis-Pierre
printer
Drouart
publisher
Gazette des Beaux-Arts
ID Number
GA.14902
catalog number
14902
accession number
94830

The Rocky Mountains, etched proof

Albert Bierstadt's (1830–1902) large painting, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, completed in 1863, presented the drama of the American West to audiences in the Eastern United States.
Description
Albert Bierstadt's (1830–1902) large painting, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, completed in 1863, presented the drama of the American West to audiences in the Eastern United States. The Rocky Mountains was Bierstadt's first big success, and he quickly developed a marketing strategy to promote his work. He contracted with engraver James Smillie (1807–1885) to produce a large black-and-white reproductive print. Then he sent the painting on tour, to be exhibited in art galleries in several eastern cities, accompanied by a subscription book and promotional flyers describing the engraving. It was available in four versions, from a limited number of artists' proofs priced at $50 each to an unlimited edition of plain proofs at $10 each.
Public exhibitions in commercial galleries, together with the growth of the print trade, expanded opportunities for people to see paintings and purchase reproductions. Publishing prints enhanced an artist's reputation and added significantly to his income, but engraving on steel was a slow and painstaking process. It took Smillie more than three years to complete his work, in part because the painting was unavailable for him to copy. First Smillie drew the details of the image with a needle on a large steel plate, measuring 43 by 70.5 centimeters. This background image was etched in acid, and the Museum's copy is an early stage proof made "off the acid" to check Smillie's progress with the design. Several areas of the print remain to be completed. They were finished by hand with the engraver's cutting tool called the burin.
In 1888 Smillie's son George donated this proof, which had been signed and dated by his father in 1865. Bierstadt also donated a signed impression of the final state of the print. Both states were exhibited together to demonstrate the process of engraving.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1865
engraver
Smillie, James
original artist
Bierstadt, Albert
ID Number
GA.00730
catalog number
00730
accession number
20355

Telegraph Register

We do not know for certain who made this ornate telegraph register, only that the Delaware & Hudson Company’s Transportation Department used it on their railroad. Telegraph equipment maker J. H.
Description (Brief)
We do not know for certain who made this ornate telegraph register, only that the Delaware & Hudson Company’s Transportation Department used it on their railroad. Telegraph equipment maker J. H. Bunnell and Company donated the register to the Smithsonian in 1901 and may have been the maker, but the piece lacks the Bunnell stamping that usually appears on their products.
Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
ID Number
EM.209324
catalog number
209324
accession number
37530

Telegraph Register

This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. Stamped “P. & R. RR.
Description (Brief)
This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. Stamped “P. & R. RR. Co.” (Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company) the register was made by Knox & Shain, a noted Philadelphia maker of telegraph equipment. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
maker
Knox & Shain
ID Number
EM.209325
catalog number
209325
accession number
37530

Telegraph Register

This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. The register was made by Knox & Shain, a noted Philadelphia maker of telegraph equipment.
Description (Brief)
This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. The register was made by Knox & Shain, a noted Philadelphia maker of telegraph equipment. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
maker
Knox & Swain
ID Number
EM.216045
catalog number
216045
accession number
40788

Telegraph Register

This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. Stamped “N. C. R. W. Co.” (which may indicate the Northern Central Railway Company) the register was reportedly used at a station in Elmira, NY.
Description (Brief)
This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. Stamped “N. C. R. W. Co.” (which may indicate the Northern Central Railway Company) the register was reportedly used at a station in Elmira, NY. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860
maker
Knox & Shain
ID Number
EM.181761
catalog number
181761
accession number
33262

Telegraph Register

This telegraph register was used by the Delaware & Hudson Company’s Transportation Department on their railroad. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire.
Description (Brief)
This telegraph register was used by the Delaware & Hudson Company’s Transportation Department on their railroad. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1860
maker
Knox & Shain
ID Number
EM.230194
accession number
43184
catalog number
230194

Sunrise on Lake Saranac

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1860
lithographer
Currier & Ives
publisher
Currier & Ives
ID Number
GA.21325
catalog number
21325
accession number
245107

Telegraph Register

This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. The register was made by Knox & Shain, a noted Philadelphia maker of telegraph equipment.
Description (Brief)
This telegraph register, typical of those in service during the U. S. Civil War, used a weight to drive the tape mechanism. The register was made by Knox & Shain, a noted Philadelphia maker of telegraph equipment. Telegraph registers are electrically-activated printers that receive Morse code messages. The message travels as a series of electrical pulses through a wire. The pulses energize the register’s electromagnets which move a lever-arm holding a pen or stylus. A clockwork mechanism pulls a strip of paper across the pen or stylus, recording the message. Short pulses draw or emboss a dot, slightly longer pulses a dash. The sequence of dots and dashes represent letters and numbers.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
ca 1860
maker
Knox & Swain
ID Number
EM.219550
catalog number
219550
accession number
40906

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