Primary Source Spotlight: Samuel Morse

Background

• Samuel F.B. Morse Sent the First Telegraphic Message from America’s Library
• What Hath God Wrought? curator video about first telegram

Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress 1793 to 1919 (see collection highlights below)

• Art & Travel
• Artist, Politician, Photographer
• Childhood & Family Life
• Daguerreotype
• Impact of the Telegraph
• Invention of the Telegraph
• Timeline

More primary sources

• Samuel Morse primary source set
• Samuel Morse image set
• Samuel Morse historic newspaper coverage

Related resources

• Today in History: First Telegraphic Message Sent
• Today in History: The Transcontinental Telegraph & the End of the Pony Express
• Learn Morse code

Teaching resources

• Electromagnetism, Electric Communication, and Community Citizen U multidisciplinary civics science lesson (elementary)
• Primary Sources in Science Classrooms: Communicating between Continents with Cables and Code Teaching with the Library of Congress blog February 24, 2016
• Primary Sources and Science TPS Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 1, Winter 2011