Communications - Overview
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.
"Communications - Overview" showing 665 items.
Page 5 of 67
Portrait of Frank Duveneck
- Description
- In 1879 William Unger, a Vienna-based artist, etched this reproduction of William Merritt Chase’s 1876 portrait of friend and fellow painter Frank Duveneck, titled The Smoker. Duveneck is wearing a Dutch-style hat and smoking a long Dutch clay pipe as he holds a portrait print after Frans Hals. Unger etched many prints after Hals and other old masters as well as after contemporary artists like Chase. His etchings were published widely in both Europe and the United States. Some appeared loose in portfolios so that they could be framed or set up on an easel for study.
- Frank Duveneck (1848–1919), son of German immigrants, began his art studies in the United States. Dissatisfied with the experience, he went to Munich in 1870 to attend classes at the Bavarian Royal Academy, where he met William Merritt Chase in 1872. He and Chase became close friends and Chase made several portraits of Duveneck during their years in Munich.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1879
- original artist
- Chase, William Merritt
- graphic artist
- Unger, William
- ID Number
- GA*14974
- catalog number
- 14974
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Bonapartes at an Inn
- Description
- Gerome Ferris recorded his painting The Bonapartes, 1804 in detail in this ink drawing. We do not know whether he made the drawing before the painting as a guide or afterward as a record, and the current location of the painting is unknown. In any case, he would have researched the historic details in depth to ensure his picture was accurate. He took pride in his chosen calling, painter-historian, which he seriously pursued from about 1900.
- The drawing shows Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s youngest brother, and his American wife, Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore, at an inn during their travels in the United States. Jerome Bonaparte had taken refuge here during the Napoleonic Wars and married during his stay in this country. A furious Napoleon rejected Jerome’s American wife, who returned to the United States. Jerome married again to support his brother’s dynastic ambition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- original artist
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA*16616
- catalog number
- 16616
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Marguerite of Anjou
- Description
- Christian Schussele, Alsatian émigré; painter and friend of Stephen Ferris, presented this watercolor design for the title page of Jacob Abbott’s book Margaret of Anjou to Ferris in 1858. The book appeared in 1861. Ferris was a student of Schussele’s, and Ferris’s son, Gerome, also studied briefly with Schussele at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before Schussele’s death in August 1879.
- Margaret of Anjou was the wife of Henry VI of England and virtually ruled the country during her husband’s frequent bouts of insanity. Her policies have sometimes been blamed for the Wars of the Roses, which convulsed England for many years during the fifteenth century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- original artist
- Schussele, Christian
- ID Number
- GA*16640
- catalog number
- 16640
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Portrait of Curator of the Alhambra
- Description
- Stephen Ferris made this pencil sketch of a distinguished, pensive older man he called the “Curator of the Alhambra” during his two-month stay in Granada, Spain, in 1881. A watercolor in the NMAH Ferris Collection of an almost identical gentleman is identified as the “Keeper of the Tore de la Vela,” the watchtower of the fortified citadel in the Alhambra complex. While Ferris, a portrait artist, was exploring the wonders of the Alhambra, he was also busy sketching people he met.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- original artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA*16683
- accession number
- 119780
- catalog number
- GA*16683
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Anglo-American Telegraph Company Records, 1862-1947
- Notes
- The Anglo-American Telegraph Company was organized in 1865 as a joint British-American venture to lay an Atlantic telegraph cable. After three failed attempts by other telegraph companies, Anglo-American Telegraph Company successfully laid and operated the first trans-Atlantic cable in 1866. The company operated cables until 1912, when they were leased to Western Union
- Summary
- Records relating to the organization of the company, corporate and financial records. Corporate records include two volumes of the company's acts, charters, contracts and agreements, 1862-1883; minutes of board meetings relating to varied subjects, such as agreements between the company and other telegraph companies such as Western Union Telegraph concerning sales of property, details of trnsactions or purchases undertaken by the company. Financial records consist of nine volumes of "journals" showing monthly records of receipts, 1866-1912; nineteen volumes of ledgers reveal a detailed financial status of the company, 1866-1912; and nine volumes of cash books consist of the financial transactions of the company, 1904-early 1941. See also 1 folder of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company telegrams in the Warshaw Collection under the heading "Telegraphs"
- Cite as
- Anglo-American Telegraph Company Records, 1862-1947, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
- Date
- 1862
- 1862-1947
- 1860-1920
- 1900-1950
- author
- Anglo-American Telegraph Company, Ltd
- collector
- Electricity and Modern Physics, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Subject
- Western Union Telegraph Company
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Regency Model TR-1 Transistor Radio
- Description
- During World War Two scientists and engineers at Bell Laboratories conducted research on many radar and radio devices. One goal was to find a replacement for fragile and energy-wasting vacuum tubes. Building on war-time research, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, working with group leader William Shockley, developed a device they called a transistor. The first laboratory demonstration took place on 23 December 1947. Bell publicly announced the new invention on 30 June 1948.
- At first the US military bought all the transistors Bell Labs could make, and the company agreed to license other manufacturers. As engineers learned how to use the new invention, plans were made for commercial products that could take advantage of the transistor's small size, energy efficiency, and rugged design. In 1953 hearing aids became the first commercial product to use transistors.
- A small, portable radio seemed a good opportunity, and a company called Idea Incorporated designed and produced the Regency. Planning began in 1951 between Idea and Texas Instruments, supplier of the transistors. Work began in earnest in the spring of 1954, and this first Regency transistor radio was in stores for the Christmas season later that year. The Regency model TR-1 contained four transistors. Capable of receiving AM stations, the radio cost about $50 (that would be almost $400 today.)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1954
- maker
- Idea Incorporated
- ID Number
- 1984.0040.01
- accession number
- 1984.0040
- catalog number
- 1984.0040.01
- model number
- TR-1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
- Description
- Late in 1862, the Union League of Philadelphia commissioned Edward Dalton Marchant to paint Lincoln's portrait for exhibition in Independence Hall as a gesture of support for the president and the Union. Marchant engaged Philadelphia artist John Sartain to engrave the portrait, and mezzotint prints were published by Bradley and Company in 1864 to meet popular demand for the image. The original painting is part of the Union League’s collection, and the Museum owns two copies of the mezzotint print, one an early proof and this one from the standard edition.
- The half-length portrait depicts Lincoln seated at a table, holding a quill. A document beneath his arm reads: “Abraham Lincoln, Jan’y 1st, 1863, Will. H. Seward.” It references the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on that date. Part of a large statue is shown at the upper right, a classical figure of Liberty with a broken chain at her feet, another reference to the emancipation of the slaves.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1864
- depicted
- Lincoln, Abraham
- original artist
- Marchant, Edward Dalton
- graphic artist
- Sartain, John
- ID Number
- 1986.1013.01
- catalog number
- 1986.1013.01
- accession number
- 1986.1013
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kodak Bullet Camera
- Description (Brief)
- This Eastman Kodak "Bullet" camera commemorates the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940.) The camera’s faceplate features the Fair’s dominant architectural features, the Trylon and the Perisphere.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1939
- ID Number
- 1989.0438.1740
- catalog number
- 1989.0438.1740
- accession number
- 1989.0438
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kodak Baby Brownie Camera
- Description
- This Eastman Kodak "Baby Brownie" camera commemorates the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). The camera’s faceplate features the Fair’s dominant architectural features, the Trylon and the Perisphere.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1939
- ID Number
- 1989.0438.1741B
- accession number
- 1989.0438
- catalog number
- 1989.0438.1741B
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Sawyer's View-Master
- Description (Brief)
- The view master was first introduced at the New York World's Fair (1939-1940.) Made by Sawyer's Photo Services, the device showed stereoscopic three-dimensional pictures. Originally intended as an educational device for adults, the view master soon become a popular children's toy. This example is a commemorative item from the Fair.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1939
- ID Number
- 1989.0438.1742
- catalog number
- 1989.0438.1742
- accession number
- 1989.0438
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center