Uj American Memory gyujtemeny

[Eniko M Basa]

The National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress and
the
Manuscript Division announce the release of the online collection of
the
Samuel F.B. Morse Papers available at the American Memory Web site
at
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sfbmhtml/>

Through the generous support of the AT&T Foundation, a selection of
6,500 library items, or approximately 50,000 digital images from the
collection is now available.  The Morse Papers consist of
correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, drawings, clippings, printed
matter, maps, and other miscellaneous materials documenting Morse*s
invention of the electromagnetic telegraph and his participation in
the
development of telegraph systems in the United States and abroad, as
well as his career as a painter, family life, travels, and interest
in
early photography and religion.  The online collection, dating from
1793-1919, offers a well-rounded portrayal of the life of Samuel
F.B.
Morse.

Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on April 27, 1791.  He
was
a graduate of Yale and trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of
Arts
in London, England.  Morse showed great promise and was
well-respected
as a painter; he tried to earn a living painting portraits but found
little financial success.  It was on his sea voyage home from
studying
art in Europe in 1832 that Morse first conceived the idea of the
electromagnetic telegraph.  For twelve years, he worked on and off
to
gather enough knowledge and experience to build his telegraph. In
1843,
Congress appropriated $30,000 for Morse to build an experimental
telegraph line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. On May
24,
1844, he sent his famous message, "What hath God wrought?" from the
Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol to the B&O Railroad Depot in
Baltimore.  That original tape is a major highlight of the
collection
and one of the treasures of the Library of Congress.

Morse also made a foray into early photography. After meeting the
French
artist and inventor of the daguerreotype, Louis Jacques Mande
Daguerre,
while in Paris in 1838, Morse returned home to be among the first to
practice photography in America. He even taught the daguerreotype
process to a number of students, including Mathew Brady.

The collection also includes sketches relating to the telegraph,
art,
and places Morse visited in Europe, as well as correspondence from
many
nineteenth-century American artists and historical figures such as
James
Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Cole, the Marquis de Lafayette, William
Henry
Seward, Roger Brooke Taney, Mathew Brady, and Eli Whitney.

American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials
relating
to the history and culture of the United States.  The site offers
more
than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical
collections.

Please direct any questions to NDLPCOLL at loc.gov