Communications
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.
2,974
Page 1 of 149
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Sir Thomas Chaloner
- Description
- Mezzotint after painting by Anthony van Dyck once in the Common Parlour at Houghton. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Print removed from George P. Marsh’s copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol. 1. SI Secretary's Library stamp embossed near lower left corner.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1778
- original artist
- Van Dyck, Anthony
- delineator
- Farington, George
- engraver
- Earlom, Richard
- publisher
- Boydell, John
- ID Number
- 1978.0534.02.78
- accession number
- 1978.0534
- catalog number
- 1978.0534.02.78
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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The Assumption of the Virgin
- Description
- Mezzotint after painting by Niccolo Berrettoni, once in the Carlo Marratta Room at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Print removed from George P. Marsh’s copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol. 2.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1783
- publisher
- Boydell, John
- engraver
- Dunkarton, Robert
- original artist
- Berrettoni, Niccolo
- ID Number
- 1978.0534.03.48
- accession number
- 1978.0534
- catalog number
- 1978.0534.03.48
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Christ and Mary Magdalene in the Garden
- Description
- Stipple engraving with etching after painting by Filippo Lauri once in the Cabinet at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Print removed from George P. Marsh’s copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol. 2.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1787
- Associated Name
- Mary Magdalene
- publisher
- Boydell, John
- Boydell, Josiah
- original artist
- Lauri, Filippo
- graphic artist
- Simon, John Peter
- ID Number
- 1978.0534.03.61
- accession number
- 1978.0534
- catalog number
- 1978.0534.03.61
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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The Hog Killers
- Description
- Circular print. 8th state, late impression, trimmed to edge of image; no plate mark. Night scene with figures gathered around hog which is being slaughtered. See Godefroy 41.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1652
- original artist
- Ostade, Adriaen van
- ID Number
- 1978.0534.29
- accession number
- 1978.0534
- catalog number
- 1978.0534.29
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Bust of a laughing peasant
- Description
- Tiny etching, copy after the 4th state. Possibly from the 19th-c edition of the plates published by the widow Jean. Signed in plate with artist's monogram AvO inside image at right. Trimmed to ruled border. See Godefroy 1.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1650
- maker
- Ostade, Adriaen van
- ID Number
- 1978.0534.33
- accession number
- 1978.0534
- catalog number
- 1978.0534.33
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Camera-ready comic art drawing for Garfield
- Description (Brief)
- This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Garfield comic strip shows the title character explaining the best things about cats.
- James Robert "Jim" Davis (1945- ) first worked at an advertising agency before transitioning into comics. Beginning in 1969, he assisted Tumbleweeds artist Tom K. Ryan. Davis later created a short-lived strip called Gnorm Gnat, which was only syndicated in one Indiana newspaper. In 1978 he launched Garfield for United Features and created one of the most popular animals in the comic world. Garfield has been represented in books, films, television specials, video games, amusement park attractions, and merchandise. Davis continues to write Garfield today.
- Garfield (1978- ) is a comic strip which looks at the life of the title character, a tabby cat, as well as a beagle named Odie, and their owner, Jon Arbuckle. Appearing in newspapers around the world, the strip’s international popularity is the result of non-topical and apolitical humor, and a simple story. The character Garfield is lazy and fat, and usually presents a disdainful attitude towards everything. He is often seen harassing Odie, his happily naïve housemate. Garfield also looks down on his owner, Jon, because of Jon's inability to get a date or benefit from social situations. Dr. Liz Wilson, Garfield’s veterinarian, was introduced in the second year of the strip’s run. She became Jon's romanic interest. In 2006, Jon and Liz began dating and then became engaged.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1978-06-25
- original artist
- Davis, Jim
- publisher
- United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1983.480.01
- accession number
- 1983.0480
- catalog number
- 1983.0480.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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American Vibroplex Telegraph Key
- Description (Brief)
- Semi-automatic keys like this "American Vibroplex" automatically produced rapid morse code dots by using a weighted pendulum to quickly make and break contact in the electrical circuit. The operator would make the dashes manually but could send much faster than with an ordinary key.
- King & Company produced this key under license from a company that worked with Horace Martin, inventor of "Vibroplex" semi-automatic key.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- King & Company
- ID Number
- 1985.0885.01
- accession number
- 1985.0885
- catalog number
- 1985.0885.01
- serial number
- 223
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Picture postcard, "San Carlos Mission (El Carmel), Founded 1770. Near Monterey, California"
- Description (Brief)
- This postcard view of San Carlos Mission (El Carmel) was printed by the Van Ornum Colorprint Company in Los Angeles, Calif. using photomechanical processes.
- The Van Ornum Colorprint Company (1908-1921) was one of many picture postcard publishing companies producing scenes in California.
- Mission San Carlos Borroméo del rio Carmelo was founded in 1770 in Carmel Valley. It was the second of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions established in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission, built to convert American Indians of the Esselen and Ohlone, or Costanoa, tribes to Catholicism, was restored to its present condition in 1882 by the parish church of Monterey.
- The mission continues to serve as a parish church today.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1908-1921
- graphic artist
- Van Ornum Colorprint Co.
- ID Number
- 1986.0639.0477
- accession number
- 1986.0639
- catalog number
- 1986.639.0477
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Picture postcard, "San Diego Mission Palm, Serra Monument in background, Old Town, San Diego, Cal."
- Description (Brief)
- This postcard view of the San Diego Mission Palm and the Serra Monument was printed in about 1915 by the H. L. Christiance company in San Diego, Calif. using photomechanical processes.
- H. L. Christiance was an expert photographer working for the Edward H. Mitchell Company in San Francisco before publishing his own postcards in San Diego.
- The postcard image shows one of the four palm trees planted around the time of the founding of the mission in 1769. Two of the four were displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892 as part of the Horticulture Gardens exhibit.
- Mission San Diego de Alcalá, situated in what is now called Mission Valley, was the first mission founded by Fr. Junípero Serra in 1769. It was the the first of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions built in California between 1769 and 1823, and was founded to convert American Indians of the Kumeyaay tribe to Catholicism.
- Today the mission buildings include a parish church.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1915
- graphic artist
- H. L. Christiance Company
- ID Number
- 1986.0639.0672
- accession number
- 1986.0639
- catalog number
- 1986.639.0672
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Picture postcard, "Mission San Ynez, California"
- Description (Brief)
- This postcard view of Mission San Ynez was printed by the Detroit Publishing Company in about 1910, using a copyrighted photolithographic process called "Photostint."
- The Detroit Publishing Company (previously known as the Detroit Photographic Company) was first listed in Detroit city directories in 1888. Its manager, William A. Livingstone, invited famous landscape photographer William Henry Jackson to join the company as a partner in 1897. Jackson brought with him his own photographic images, which would be used by the company.
- Mission Santa Ynez (or Inés), founded in 1804, is located northwest of Santa Barbara. It was the nineteenth of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions to be established in California between 1769 and 1823, and was built to convert American Indians of the Chumash tribe to Catholicism.
- Today the mission serves as both a parish church and a museum.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- graphic artist
- Detroit Publishing Co.
- ID Number
- 1986.0639.2019
- accession number
- 1986.0639
- catalog number
- 1986.639.2019
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Picture postcard, "Pala Mission Tower, San Diego County, Calif."
- Description (Brief)
- This postcard view of the Pala Mission Tower was printed by the Detroit Publishing Company in about 1910, using a copyrighted photolithographic process called "Photostint."
- The Detroit Publishing Company (previously known as the Detroit Photographic Company) was first listed in Detroit city directories in 1888. Its manager, William A. Livingstone, invited the famous landscape photographer William Henry Jackson to join the company as a partner in 1897. Jackson brought with him his own photographic images, which would be used by the company.
- San Antonio de Pala Asistencia was an ancillary mission to Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, which was the eighteenth of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions founded in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission and ancillary mission were established to convert American Indians of the Kumeyaay and Luiseno tribes to Catholicism.
- Today San Antonio de Pala Asistencia continues to minister to an American Indian community.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- graphic artist
- Detroit Publishing Co.
- ID Number
- 1986.0639.2021
- accession number
- 1986.0639
- catalog number
- 1986.639.2021
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Picture postcard, "La Purísima Concepcíon Mission, California. Founded December 8, 1787"
- Description (Brief)
- This postcard view of Mission La Purísima Concepcíon was printed by the Detroit Publishing Company in about 1910, using a copyrighted photolithographic process called "Photostint."
- The Detroit Publishing Company (previously known as the Detroit Photographic Company) was first listed in Detroit city directories in 1888. Its manager, William A. Livingstone, invited famous landscape photographer William Henry Jackson to join the company as a partner in 1897. Jackson brought with him his own photographic images, which would be used by the company.
- Mission La Purísima Concepcíon is located northwest of Santa Barbara in the city of Lompoc. It was the eleventh of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions founded in California between 1769 and 1823, and was established to convert American Indians of the Chumash tribe to Catholicism.
- Today the mission is one of two missions managed by the California State Park system. The other is the Mission San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- graphic artist
- Detroit Publishing Co.
- ID Number
- 1986.0639.2040
- accession number
- 1986.0639
- catalog number
- 1986.639.2040
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
La Renaissance Louisianaise
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- March 7, 1869
- maker; publisher
- La Renaissance
- ID Number
- 2008.0090.39
- accession number
- 2008.0090
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
photograph
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2012.0093.07
- accession number
- 2012.0093
- catalog number
- 2012.0093.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Index to Souvenier sic of 1876
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1876
- maker
- Greatorex, Eliza Pratt
- ID Number
- 2012.0093.22.02
- accession number
- 2012.0093
- catalog number
- 2012.0093.22.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Mount Vernon, the Home of Washington
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1876
- maker
- Greatorex, Eliza Pratt
- ID Number
- 2012.0093.22.05
- accession number
- 2012.0093
- catalog number
- 2012.0093.22.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Ault & Wiborg Co.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1895
- original artist
- Huntington, Carolyn
- graphic artist
- Weisbrodt, H. W.
- maker
- Weisbrodt, H. W.
- ID Number
- 2012.0093.23
- accession number
- 2012.0093
- catalog number
- 2012.0093.23
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
An Etching Society Outing
- Description
- This light-hearted etching by Stephen Ferris, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers Outing in 1900, recalls the sixth such event held by the Society on the Neshaminy River near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Etching, eating, and games were the outing’s major activities.
- Ferris was a founding member of the Society, organized in 1880, and its first treasurer. Initially, it was an important source for information in the Philadelphia area about the newly revived technique of etching. The group met monthly during the summer for more than twenty years, offering occasions for its members to exchange prints.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1900
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14476
- accession number
- 94830
- catalog number
- 14476
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Torre del Oro, Seville
- Description (Brief)
- While traveling in southern Spain in the summer of 1881, Stephen Ferris drew Seville’s Torre del Oro or Golden Tower in ink. The two lower sections of the tower were built by the Moors in the thirteenth century and the top section added by the Spanish in the eighteenth. Ferris, who was interested in Moorish architecture, merely recorded the outline of the top section in dots.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14537
- catalog number
- 14537
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Ruined Brewery on Girard Avenue
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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- Communications 2974
- Art 1156
- Industrialization 425
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- Models (representations) 399
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- Patent Models, Graphic Arts 394
- Tokuno Gift 194
- Copp Collection 185
- Ferris Collection 166
- Marsh Collection 140
- Science 123
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- Prints 725
- Models (representations) 430
- Patents 422
- telegraph relay 345
- relay 282
- Drawings 279
- Correspondence 184
- Sheet (Paper); Manuscript 180
- Lithographs 135
- Engravings (prints) 133
- telegraph receiver 121
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- Printing presses 110
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- Work and Industry: Graphic Arts 1946
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- Cultures & Communities 455
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- Tokuno Gift 194
- Cultural and Community Life: Domestic Life 186
- Copp Collection 185
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- Science & Mathematics 122
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- Telegraph Relays & Repeaters 83
- Military 82
- Comic Art 81
