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: Prints

Spring Vegetable Soup

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.24
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.24

Arab Mother and Child with Dog

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
ID Number
GA.14445
accession number
94830
catalog number
14445

House of the Mountebank, Cairo, Egypt

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1870
1879
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14399.01
accession number
94830
catalog number
14399.01

Cherries Jubilee

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.07
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.07

American Converting Canoes into Schooners, in the Bay of Panama

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1851
associated date
1851
author
Sears, Robert
publisher
Oliver & Brother
ID Number
GA.309390.05
accession number
309390
catalog number
309390.05

Emigrants Departing for the West

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
September 2, 1871
associated date
1871
graphic artist
Harper & Brothers
Jewett, William Samuel Lyon
Jewett, William Samuel Lyon
ID Number
GA.309390.06
catalog number
309390.06
309390.06

Carrot Bread

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.05
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.05

Merchant's Exchange, San Francisco

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1857
associated date
1852 - 1857
graphic artist
Peirce, Joshua H.
original artist
Waud, William
ID Number
GA.309390.08
catalog number
309390.08
309390.08

The Bummers

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
original artist
Perry, Jr., E. Wood
ID Number
GA.24129
catalog number
GA*24129
accession number
317875

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Li'l Abner

This pen-and-ink drawing for the Li’l Abner newspaper strip shows the general frenzy associated with fast-approaching Sadie Hawkins Day.Alfred Gerald Caplin or Al Capp (1909-1979) began drawing comics in his youth after a serious accident which required a leg amputation.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing for the Li’l Abner newspaper strip shows the general frenzy associated with fast-approaching Sadie Hawkins Day.
Alfred Gerald Caplin or Al Capp (1909-1979) began drawing comics in his youth after a serious accident which required a leg amputation. He attended art schools and in the early 1930s was given the opportunity to introduce a new character, named Big Leviticus, to the newspaper strip Joe Palooka. Inspired by his work with Ham Fisher on the strip, Capp began developing his own strip, called Li’l Abner, a look at a fictitious, backward mountain culture. The strip debuted in 1934 and was shortly syndicated worldwide. Capp, like other comic artists, used his strip to comment on cultural shortcomings and prejudices.
Li’l Abner (1934-1977) was a satirical comic strip about a hillbilly clan living in fictional Dogpatch, Arkansas. The title character was a large, simple, naïve, and good-hearted individual. The character Li'l Abner also spent the better part of two decades evading the affections of Daisy Mae Scraggs, whose family was the sworn enemy of his family, the Yokums. Eventually, Capp yielded to readers’ wishes and married Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae in 1952. The strip's storyline included the fabrication of Sadie Hawkins Day, the annual event which allowed women the opportunity to literally catch a husband.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1941-11-08
graphic artist
Capp, Al
publisher
United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
2010.0081.095
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.095

Nandina domestica

Japanese wood block print. One of a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica.
Description
Japanese wood block print. One of a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.This final impression is printed on starched silk.
Location
Currently not on view
artist
Kido, Kotaro
printer
Yamamoto, Iwakachi
designer
Chinzan, Tsubaki
ID Number
GA.03217.36
catalog number
03217.36
accession number
22582

La Sauce Mayonnaise

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.13
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.13

Christ Preaching (La Petite Tombe)

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
engraver
Rembrandt van Rijn
ID Number
GA.01459
catalog number
01459
accession number
20802

Nandina domestica

Japanese wood block print. No. 33 in a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.Currently not on view
Description
Japanese wood block print. No. 33 in a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.03217.33
catalog number
03217.33
accession number
22582

Satan tempting Christ in the wilderness

Title attribution from the British Museum online catalogue. Signed in the plate " DvB in." [invenit]. Vinckboons's original drawing is in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.Currently not on view
Description
Title attribution from the British Museum online catalogue. Signed in the plate " DvB in." [invenit]. Vinckboons's original drawing is in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
17th century
graphic artist
Visscher, Nicolaes Jansz
original artist
Vinckboons, David
ID Number
1978.0534.05
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.05

Nandina domestica

Japanese wood block print. No. 10 in a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.Currently not on view
Description
Japanese wood block print. No. 10 in a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.
Location
Currently not on view
engraver
Kido, Kotaro
ID Number
GA.03217.10
catalog number
03217.10
accession number
22582

Mendiant

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1860
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
publisher
Goupil & Cie.
graphic artist
Delatre
ID Number
GA.16767
catalog number
16767
accession number
119780

Table Mountain

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930
ca 1928
ca 1931
ca 1927
ca 1933
ca 1932
ca 1936
ca 1929
graphic artist
Totten, Ralph J.
ID Number
2013.0196.39
accession number
2013.0196
catalog number
2013.0196.39

The Red Shawl

"The Red Shawl" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by May Gearhart (1872–1951). Although she created landscape prints like her sister Frances, May Gearhart also made prints of figure subjects.
Description
"The Red Shawl" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by May Gearhart (1872–1951). Although she created landscape prints like her sister Frances, May Gearhart also made prints of figure subjects. "The Red Shawl" is an image inspired by one of her trips to Mexico.
In the print, a woman shown in profile holds a small bouquet of flowers while walking along a cobblestone sidewalk next to a white building. Her layered clothing, Gearhart's skillful use of color, and the deep shadows give the impression of a cold, but sunny morning. The woman is wearing a full, plaid, violet skirt and a red shawl. Her slightly bowed head is covered by a yellow kerchief and her face is shadowed.
Gearhart achieved a watercolor effect by thinning oil-based inks. This tiny print is very loosely rendered, a characteristic of the soft ground technique. Although the process of printmaking usually involves creating a set of identical images, Gearhart often printed in small editions, using different shades of ink for each print to produce unique impressions.
The Gearhart sisters both taught school, and they worked closely with two brothers, Benjamin and Howell Brown, to establish and support printmaking organizations in California. The Gearharts and the Browns exhibited their prints at the Smithsonian in the 1920s, and they all made generous donations of their work.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
[1920]
graphic artist
Gearhart, May
ID Number
GA.13357
catalog number
13357
accession number
70154

Califonia Cabin at the Mines

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1856
associated date
1856
graphic artist
Ballou, Maturin Murray
ID Number
GA.309390.16
catalog number
309390.16
309390.16

Farm House

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930
ca 1928
ca 1931
ca 1927
graphic artist
Totten, Ralph J.
ID Number
2013.0196.25
accession number
2013.0196
catalog number
2013.0196.25

print

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1944
maker
Kline, Franz
ID Number
2013.0057.01
accession number
2013.0057
catalog number
2013.0057.01

Portrait of Von Steuben

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1857
depicted (sitter)
Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin
engraver
Huber, Kaspar Ulrich
ID Number
2014.0250.43
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.43

Pussy-Cat, Pussy-Cat, Where Have You Been ...

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.13910.01
catalog number
13910.01

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