American Historical Ephemera & Early Photography Online

7 different CDV portraits of Morse, most with photographers' imprints on versos including for D. Appleton & Co. / A. A. Turner, New York, NY; E. & H. T. Anthony/Brady, New York, NY; Gurney, New York, NY; Sarony & Co., New York, NY; and Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, New York, NY and Washington, DC.

Trained as an artist and portrait painter, Morse spent the first 30 years of his life pursuing a creative endeavor that failed to earn him a living. He was a very early practitioner of Louis Daguerre's newly discovered daguerreotype process in 1839, and actually ended up teaching the process to Mathew Brady. He is best known, however, for his own invention, which he discovered by experimenting with the transmission of signals by electricity. He eventually perfected the idea for an apparatus that would become known as the telegraph. The revolutionary invention was achieved with the aid of fellow inventor Joseph Henry's intensity magnet. Morse then developed a practical language of dots and dashes known as the Morse code and with a system of electromagnetic relays he devised to carry transmissions over long distances the telegraph and the age of instant communication was born. Morse partnered with financier Alfred Vail in 1837 and applied for a patent that was not granted until 1844. In 1843 Congress approved and funded an experimental telegraph line running from Washington to Baltimore. The Morse code was first used on May 24, 1844 when the inventor tapped out the message, "What hath God wrought!" Morse dutifully offered the rights to the government who refused the price. He spent the next decade defending his patent, which was finally upheld by the Supreme Court in 1854, and Morse could finally begin collecting royalties on his invention.