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Collections on Invention and Innovation in the NMAH Archives Center
Archives Center, National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution Contents
IntroductionThe Western Union Telegraph Company Collection, 1848-1963, came to the National Museum of American History in 1971 as a gift from the Western Union Telegraph Company. The collection in the Archives Center consists mostly of manuscript materials from the Western Union Museum. It occupies approximately sixty linear feet of shelf space. The material includes a series of fragmentary administrative records, a limited amount of correspondence, fairly useful reference materials on telegraphy, and a series of telegram examples, 1857-1948. The collection is particularly strong in photographs. In addition to photoprints of Western Union facilities, pole yards, and employees, there is a wealth of images of telegraphic equipment and installations. There also are many telegraph facsimiles, 1925-42. The apparatus and equipment from the Western Union Museum are now held in the National Museum of American History's Division of Electricity and Modern Physics. The Collection is open to researchers in the Archives Center, third floor east, of the National Museum of American History, between 12th and 14th Streets on Constitution Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20560. The Archives Center is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Written and telephone (202 357-3270) inquiries are welcome. Researchers are encouraged to contact the Archives Center to make an appointment prior to their arrival. This is the tenth in a series of occasional guides to collections in the Archives Center. Finding aids to other collections are available. The Guide to Manuscript Collections in the National Museum of History and Technology, 1978, and an updated compilation, contain brief descriptions of all archival holdings in the Museum. All current Archives Center holdings are described in the Smithsonian Institution Bibliographic Information System (SIBIS), an online data base. HistoryIn 1832 Samuel F. B. Morse, assisted by Alfred Vail, conceived of the idea for an electromechanical telegraph, which he called the "Recording Telegraph." This commercial application of electricity was made tangible by their construction of a crude working model in 1835-36. This instrument probably was never used outside of Professor. Morse's rooms where it was, however, operated in a number of demonstrations. This original telegraph instrument was in the hands of the Western Union Telegraph Company and had been kept carefully over the years in a glass case. It was moved several times in New York as the Western Union headquarters building changed location over the years. The company presented it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1950. The telegraph was further refined by Morse, Vail, and a colleague, Leonard Gale, into working mechanical form in 1837. In this year Morse filed a caveat for it at the U.S. Patent Office. Electricity, provided by Joseph Henry's 1836 "intensity batteries", was sent over a wire. The flow of electricity through the wire was interrupted for shorter or longer periods by holding down the key of the device. The resulting dots or dashes were recorded on a printer or could be interpreted orally. In 1838 Morse perfected his sending and receiving code and organized a corporation, making Vail and Gale his partners. In 1843 Morse received funds from Congress to set-up a demonstration line between Washington and Baltimore. Unfortunately, Morse was not an astute businessman and had no practical plan for constructing a line. After an unsuccessful attempt at laying underground cables with Ezra Cornell, the inventor of a trenchdigger, Morse switched to the erection of telegraph poles and was more successful. On May 24, 1844, Morse in the U.S. Supreme Court Chambers in Washington sent by telegraph the oft-quoted message to his colleague Vail in Baltimore, "What hath God wrought!" In 1845 Morse hired Andrew Jackson's former postmaster general, Amos Kendall, as his agent in locating potential buyers of the telegraph. Kendall realized the value of the device, and had little trouble convincing others of its potential for profit. By the spring he had attracted a small group of investors. They subscribed $15,000 and formed the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Many new telegraph companies were formed as Morse sold licenses wherever he could. The first commercial telegraph line was completed between Washington, D.C., and New York City in the spring of 1846 by the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Shortly thereafter, F. O. J. Smith, one of the patent owners, built a line between New York City and Boston. Most of these early companies were licensed by owners of Samuel Morse patents. The Morse messages were sent and received in a code of dots and dashes. At this time other telegraph systems based on rival technologies were being built. Some companies used the printing telegraph, a device invented by a Vermonter, Royal E. House, whose messages were printed on paper or tape in Roman letters. In 1848 a Scotch scientist, Alexander Bain, received his patents on a telegraph. These were but two of many competing and incompatible technologies that had developed. The result was confusion, inefficiency, and a rash of suits and countersuits. By 1851 there were over fifty separate telegraph companies operating in the United States. This corporate cornucopia developed because the owners of the telegraph patents had been unsuccessful in convincing the United States and other governments of the invention's potential usefulness. In the private sector, the owners had difficulty convincing capitalists of the commercial value of the invention. This led to the owners' willingness to sell licenses to many purchasers who organized separate companies and then built independent telegraph lines in various sections of the country. Hiram Sibley moved to Rochester, New York, in 1838 to pursue banking and real estate. Later he was elected sheriff of Monroe County. In Rochester he was introduced to Judge Samuel L. Selden who held the House Telegraph patent rights. In 1849 Selden and Sibley organized the New York State Printing Telegraph Company, but they found it hard to compete with the existing New York, Albany, and Buffalo Telegraph Company. After this experience Selden suggested that instead of creating a new line, the two should try to acquire all the companies west of Buffalo and unite them into a single unified system. Selden secured an agency for the extension throughout the United States of the House system. In an effort to expand this line west, Judge Selden called on friends and the people in Rochester. This eventually led in April 1851 to the organization of a company and the filing in Albany of the Articles of Association for the "New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company" (NYMVPTC), a company which later evolved into the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1854 there were two rival systems of the NYMVPTC in the West. These two systems consisted of thirteen separate companies. All the companies were using Morse patents in the five states north of the Ohio River. This created a struggle between three separate entities, leading to an unreliable and inefficient telegraph service. The owners of these rival companies eventually decided to invest their money elsewhere and arrangements were made for the NYMVPTC to purchase their interests. Hiram Sibley recapitalized the company in 1854 under the same name and began a program of construction and acquisition. The most important take-over was carried out by Sibley when he negotiated the purchase of the Morse patent rights for the Midwest for $50,000 from Jeptha H. Wade and John J. Speed, without the knowledge of Ezra Cornell, their partner in the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company (EMTC). With this acquisition Sibley proceeded to switch to the superior Morse system. He also hired Wade, a very capable manager, who became his protege and later his successor. After a bitter struggle Morse and Wade obtained the EMTC from Cornell in 1855, thus assuring dominance by the NYMVPTC in the Midwest. In 1856 the company name was changed to the "Western Union Telegraph Company," indicating the union of the aforementioned Western lines into one compact system. In December 1857 the Company paid stockholders their first dividend. Between 1857 and 1861 similar consolidations of telegraph companies took place in other areas of the country so that most of the telegraph interests of the United States had merged into six systems. These were the American Telegraph Company (covering the Atlantic and some Gulf states), The Western Union Telegraph Company (covering states north of the Ohio River and parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Minnesota), the New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company (covering New York State), the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company (covering Pennsylvania), the Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company (covering sections of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois), and the New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company (covering the southern Mississippi Valley and the Southwest). All these companies worked together in a mutually friendly alliance, and other small companies cooperated with the six systems, particularly some on the West Coast. By the time of the Civil War, there was a strong commercial incentive to construct a telegraph line accross the western plains to link the two coasts of America. Many companies, however, believed the line would be impossible to build and maintain. In 1860 Congress passed, and President James Buchanan signed, the Pacific Telegraph Act, which authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to seek bids for a project to contruct a transcontinental line. When two bidders dropped out, Hiram Sibley, representing Western Union, was the only bidder left. By default Sibley won the contract. The Pacific Telegraph Company was organized for the purpose of building the eastern section of the line. Sibley sent Wade to California, where he consolidated the small local companies into the California State Telegraph Company. This entity then organized the Overland Telegraph Company, which handled construction eastward from Carson City, Nevada, joining the existing California lines, to Salt Lake City, Utah. Sibley's Pacific Telegraph Company built westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Sibley put most of his resources into the venture. The line was completed in October 1861. Both companies were soon merged into Western Union. This accomplishment made Hiram Sibley leader of the telegraph industry. Further consolidations took place over the next several years. Many companies merged into the American Telegraph Company. With the expiration of the Morse patents, several organizations were combined in 1864 under the name of "The U.S. Telegraph Company." In 1866 the final consolidation took place, with Western Union exchanging stock for the stock of the other two organizations. The general office of Western Union moved at this time from Rochester to 145 Broadway, New York City. In 1875 the main office moved to 195 Broadway, where it remained until 1930 when it relocated to 60 Hudson Street. In 1873 Western Union purchased a majority of shares in the International Ocean Telegraph Company. This was an important move because it marked Western Union's entry into the foreign telegraph market. Having previously worked with foreign companies, Western Union now began competing for overseas business. In the late 1870s Western Union, led by William H. Vanderbilt, attempted to wrest control of the major telephone patents, and the new telephone industry, away from the Bell Telephone Company. But due to new Bell leadership and a subsequent hostile takeover attempt of Western Union by Jay Gould, Western Union discontinued its fight and Bell Telephone prevailed. Despite these corporate calisthenics, Western Union remained in the public eye. The sight of a uniformed Western Union messenger boy was familiar in small towns and big cities all over the country for many years. Some of Western Union's top officials in fact began their careers as messenger boys. Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century the telegraph became one of the most important factors in the development of social and commercial life of America. In spite of improvements to the telegraph, however, two new inventions -- the telephone (nineteenth century) and the radio (twentieth century) -- eventually replaced the telegraph as the leaders of the communication revolution for most Americans. At the turn of the century, Bell abandoned its struggles to maintain a monopoly through patent suits, and entered into direct competition with the many independent telephone companies. Around this time, the company adopted its new name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T). In 1908 AT&T gained control of Western Union. This proved beneficial to Western Union, because the companies were able to sharelines when needed, and it became posible to order telegrams by telephone. However, it was only possible to order Western Union telegrams, and this hurt the business of Western Union's main competitor, the Postal Telegraph Company. In 1913, however, as part of a move to prevent the government from invoking antitrust laws, AT&T completely separated itself from Western Union. Western Union continued to prosper and received commendations from the U.S. armed forces for service during both world wars. In 1945 Western Union finally merged with its longtime rival, the Postal Telegraph Company. As part of that merger, Western Union agreed to separate domestic and foreign business. In 1963 Western Union International Incorporated, a private company completely separate from the Western Union Telegraph Company, was formed and the agreement with the Postal Telegraph Company was completed. Western Union survives today. Many technological advancements followed the telegraph's development. The following are among the more important: The first advancement of the telegraph occurred around 1850 when operators realized that the clicks of the recording instrument protrayed a sound pattern, understandable by the operators as dots and dashes. This allowed the operator to hear the message by ear and simultaneously write it down. This ability transformed the telegraph into a versatile and speedy system. Duplex Telegraphy, 1871-72, was invented by the president of the Franklin Telegraph Company. Unable to sell his invention to his own company, he found a willing buyer in Western Union. Utilizing this invention, two messages were sent over the wire simultaneously, one in each direction. As business blossomed and demand surged, new devices appeared.Thomas Edison's Quadruplex allowed four messages to be sent over the same wire simultaneously, two in one direction and two in the other. An English automatic signalling arrangement, Wheatstone's Automatic Telegraph, 1883, allowed larger numbers of words to be transmitted over a wire at once. It could only be used advantageously, however, on circuits where there was a heavy volume of business. Buckingham's Machine Telegraph was an improvement on the House system. It printed received messages in plain Roman letters quickly and legibly on a message blank, ready for delivery. Vibroplex, c. 1890, a semi-automatic key sometimes called a "bug key," made the dots automatically. This relieved the operator of much physical strain. ProvenanceThis manuscript collection originated as a portion of the Western Union Telegraph Museum begun in 1912, by H.W. Drake, an electrical engineer of the Western Union Company. He collected old telegraph instruments and other apparatus for their historic value and for their use in commercial and advertising displays or exhibits. Later these collected devices were instrumental in settling patent litigation for the company. He also collected the ancillary archival materials that comprise this manuscript collection. In 1930, when Western Union's general headquarters moved from 195 Broadway to 60 Hudson Street, a small room was set aside to house the growing collection of artifacts and papers. In 1933 Western Union was represented in an exhibit at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago. Many instruments from the collection of the Western Union Museum were included in the exposition. To fully detail the history of the telegraph, many original instruments were borrowed from the Smithsonian Institution and replicated. These reproductions helped improve Western Union's collection. When the fair ended, the objects were returned to the renamed Western Union Engineering Museum. In the early 1930s internal memoranda were sent to Western Union divisional plant superintendents urging them to save old telegraph instruments. Soon thereafter old instruments arrived from Western Union's divisions around the country. Engineering Department laboratories in particular sent many objects. By 1936 over five hundred artifacts had been collected. The museum was maintained by J. Schmid and twenty volunteers from the Engineering Divisions in their spare time. Early in 1969 Western Union officials decided to close the Museum and to use its space for offices. The objects and archival material were to be stored in a warehouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania. At that time Smithsonian curators suggested to Western Union that certain material be transferred to the Smithsonian rather than to storage. It was hoped that this would ensure the preservation and availability of at least some items, and also mean that some material could be put to some use during that period of uncertainty. At this time J.E. Stebner, the Western Union Museum curator, donated many items to the Smithsonian, believing that they would be permanently preserved and used in relating the story of communication. In January 1971 Western Union officials proposed a transfer of the Western Union Museum to the National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) under an indefinite loan agreement in the hopes of making the materials more readily available for exhibition purposes and for use by historians. In September 1971 the collection was received by the Museum as a gift and was deposited in the Division of Electricity. The archival materials were transferred to the Archives Center in June 1986. Scope and Content NoteThe collection is divided into eleven series and is contained in 112 boxes. The following scope and content note includes a series description for all series. The container list beginning on page 47 has a detailed description of the contents of the collection.This collection documents in photographs, scrapbooks, notebooks, correspondence, and reference materials the evolution of the telegraph, the development of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the beginning of the communications revolution. The collection includes reference materials that describe both the history of the company and of the telegraph industry in general, particularly its importance to the development of the technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection is useful for researchers interested in the development of technology, economic history, and the impact of technology on American social and cultural life. SERIES 1 (boxes 1-4) contains publications written between 1848 and 1963 that give a good general background on the history of the telegraph. The first two boxes contain published material arranged alphabetically by author. Boxes 3 and 4 are arranged alphabetically by title, as no authors are indicated. SERIES 2 (boxes 5-10) contains published material on the Western Union Telegraph Company. Boxes 5, 6, and 7 have volumes detailing the technological development and progress of the company between 1910 and 1950. Boxes 8 and 9 hold general reference works on the company arranged alphabetically. Box 10 contains a report on the company in French. The Western Union administrative records in SERIES 3 (boxes 11-14) are incomplete. Some administrative records were given to the Western Union Telegraph Museum, and are located in Series 9, Subseries 3 and 4. Subseries 1 of Series 3 contains a ledger from the California State Telegraph Company, 1853-60, another from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1861-79, and an unidentified Western Union Office ledger, 1881-1903. For example, Subseries 2, Annual Reports, covers the years 1869, 1873-1905, and 1935; organization charts for the company cover the years 1915 to 1956; Subseries 3 contains fragmentary records of the Superintendents of Supply, 1887-1948, containing rate tables, service rolls, and miscellaneous correspondence from that office. Subseries 4 consists of miscellaneous records, including employees' membership cards and building passes. There is a bound folder titled "Old Correspondence and Forms #2166" consisting of some early miscellaneous California correspondence, 1854-66, and correspondence from other locations, 1873-1939; applicants for Time Signal Service, 1889-98; and many other miscellaneous forms, agreements, invoices, and receipts. This subseries also contains an inventory from a Brooklyn warehouse. SERIES 4 (box 15) contains general correspondence relating to the operation of telegraphic systems and the purchase of equipment. There is also a large amount of correspondence relating to patents. (Series 6, Patents, is quite useful for examing competing systems and Thomas Edison's patents.) In folder 1 of Series 4 is a letterpress volume of correspondence, December 3, 1887, to September 29, 1888, which is mostly between Western Union employees Frank B. Rae, probably an electrical engineer, and G. W. Huddleston, a manager. It outlines tools and other supplies needed, repairs needed; makes personnel suggestions about firing, wage increases, and hiring; and requests approval and subsequent payment of overtime for specific personnel. There are a few letters to G.B. Scott, also of Western Union, and to outside firms requesting cost estimates of certain equipment or changes in specific machines. A few letters (October 28-November 30, 1888) on similar subjects are from A.P. Lauckhard. Much of the correspondence, October 29, 1896, to February 27, 1911, in the second letterpress volume found in folder 2, is from Jay R. Page to E.G. Sheckler requesting supplies and repairs to equipment, or discussing the need for these. There are several letters from E.G. Sheckler protesting his "acting" status and salary to F.H. Tubbs, a Western Union superintendent. There are occasional letters regarding personnel, a few orders to outside companies for something to be made, with specifications, and several for permission to string wires from property owned by others. Like the correspondence in the first letterpress volume, most of the correspondence is within the Western Union Telegraph Company and pertains to operation of the system. Nine folders (folders 3-11) of correspondence to Charles L. Buckingham, General Counsel for Western Union, date from 1880 to 1889. It is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Most of the correspondence in the first five folders (folders 3-7) relates to patents; some relates to patent hearing dates and some to accounts. Included are typed Edison patent specifications, printed Essick specifications, Theodore M. Foote specifications and a large number of letters from Morris S. Hopkins of Baldwin, Hopkins and Peyton, a law firm acting on patents for the Western Union Telegraph Company. Folder 7 contains correspondence from and to A.A. Knudson, an electrical engineer, about a patent for a printing telegraph and notes from Charles A. Judson about money owed him. Folder 8 has many letters from H.C. Nicholson about experiments, including the "Quad" telegraph and several about a proposal of the Postal Telegraph regarding the continuation of a trunk line from New York to Chicago. Other correspondence to Charles Buckingham during this period relates to Edison patents, the manufacture of printers for Australia, requests from an auditor for review and approval and bills rendered, and lost or misplaced patents. A partial letter of October 7, 1896, to the Smithsonian Institution (folder 12) describes the original Morse telegraph. An extensive report to the Spanish Legation, 1872, describes problems in connection with retrieving and repairing an underseas cable from Key West to Havana and includes expense accounts. Folder 14 contains miscellaneous correspondence from 1872 to 1904 that refers to many types of equipment, cables, the line between New York and Chicago, the Telegraphone, and trials on the Telegraplex system. The miscellaneous correspondence from 1914 to 1938, contained in folder 15, pertains to Telegraphones on the P. and R. railroad, the Northern Pacific railroad, the L. and N. and the D. and H. railroads, photographs of the Missouri Pacific office; the history of the underground cable; a description of the District of Columbia time service and of the "Siemens unit"; and telegrams of congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the first public demonstration of the Morse telegraph. In folder 16 is a letter dated July 19, 1941 from William F. Judson to John R. Hyland. This letter details a gift to Western Union of Cyrus Field's dining room furniture on which the charter for the original Atlantic cable was signed. The most recent correspondence (1953-56) from R. Harris details the collecting of message forms, the use of less expensive copier paper, and specifications for customer bill heads. SERIES 5 (boxes 16-22) includes a few personal and many laboratory notebooks from employees and engineers of Western Union. The numbers noted in the container list presumably refer to some Western Union Museum identification number. H.W. Drake's notebooks kept at 195 Broadway contain materials lists; equipment costs; descriptions and drawings of telegraphic equipment; lists of telegraphic line routes; accounts collected for telegraphic sevice (Central Division, 1880s); accounts of revenues, compensations for employees, expenses, receipts and rates; a comparative statement of remittances from various railroads, 1881-92; electrical diagrams and blueprints; and a Vacuum Tube Investigation Daily Record Book #2. H. P. Gilbert's laboratory workbooks consist of laboratory reports on the results of tests of meters, rectifiers, relays, jacks, tubes, call boxes (with photoprints of the test results), and shellac. Included are negatives, some deteriorating. J. Schmid was an engineer working at the Hudson Street office. His notebooks contain laboratory reports on batteries (Waterbury "Tele" Cells, Waterbury Battery Company, Waterbury, Conn.); test results on call box knobs, relay test tables, rectifiers, signal lamps, time service units, keepers and magnets, clocks, 400-w Call Circuit Register, relays (with photoprints of test results), motor generator set, wire samples, bells and buzzers, lamp-type resistance units, plugs, cords, microfarad meters (Jewel & Weston), volt-ammeters, diamond flasher buttons, and dry cells. There also are two notebooks of the Apparatus Engineer's Office at 195 Broadway consisting of calibrations of electrostatic voltmeters and test results on switches, relays, repeaters, zinc and iron electrodes in different cells, sounders, and quadruplexes. Also included are oscillograms. Other notebooks of unknown origin contain tests on dry cells, transmission studies, and entries from Selector Maintenance Cards turned over by the Repair Shop after removal from the field. The cards include reasons for the return of the equipment. SERIES 6 (boxes 23-33; 112) contains many patents that trace the development and improvements in the telegraph (and some telephone) apparatus between 1840 and 1954. The series is organized into eleven subseries. The first eight subseries, 1840-1914, are arranged alphabetically by inventor: Charles Buckingham, Thomas A. Edison, Elisha Gray, Samuel F.B. Morse, George Phelps, Joseph Stearn, John Skirrow, and Charles Wheatstone. Subseries 9, arranged chronologically, contains miscellaneous patents, 1846-1908. Most patents are for improvements to the telegraph, though there are several for electric time-controlling systems and electric clocks. Subseries 10 consists of three document boxes containing numbered patent specifications, 1900-54. These patent specifications came out of Western Union notebooks, so that order has been retained in this subseries. They are organized by type of improvement or invention. Among the patents represented in this subseries are those relating to: signalling systems; switching systems; automatic message exchange system; multioffice systems; storage systems; facsimile systems; oscillator systems; frequency transformation systems; printing telegraph systems; reperferators; repeaters; oscillators; generators; radio antennas; rectifiers; condensers; detectors; static reducers; and batteries. SERIES 7 (boxes 34-37) contains scrapbooks, 1869-1956, both loose and bound, consisting mostly of news clippings. Loose pages from a scrapbook of C.H. Murphy contain information on Western Union's time service and clocks. Two small scrapbooks, titled "The Little Traveller," were kept by an unnamed Western Union employee who visited the company's offices in the West. There are photoprints of various Western Union offices and employees, with comments by the author and those he visited. There are two scrapbooks of Edward C. Brown, one in loose form, the other bound. The loose material contains memorabilia and news clippings announcing his retirement in 1938 after 51 years of service as Western Union's general supervisor of messenger equipment. The bound scrapbook contains news clippings that depict messenger boys' encounters with the law. Subseries 1 consists of eight news clippings scrapbooks, 1869-1956, containing articles on telegraphy, radio, and electrical engineering. SERIES 8 (boxes 38-40) contains examples of telegrams wired by various U.S. telegraph companies, 1851-1946; telegrams wired by Western Union; examples of message forms celebrating holidays such as Christmas, Jewish New Year, Valentine's Day, and Happy Birthday; examples of other types of forms and order blanks; franks and advertising stamps, c. 1907-09, and telegraph emphemera, 1943 and 1948. SERIES 9 (boxes 41-51) contains materials related to the Western Union Telegraph Museum, a separate entity within the Western Union Telegraph Company. These materials are of several types. The material was placed in the museum from other divisions or departments of the company and was created by the museum itself. Upon examination it is usually possible to tell where the material came from. The Western Union Company placed many records into the Western Union Telegraph Museum. In processing the collection we have retained that provenance. Nevertheless, the provenance of many items is unclear and often inconsistent. Many of the manuscript materials in Series 9 are similar to other materials in the collection. Most of the materials in this series have been marked as museum objects, i.e., they have been given museum identification numbers. Much of this material was assembled and either attached or placed together in notebooks. However, some items in this series are not marked as museum items and it is unclear whether those unmarked items are museum items or company records that came to the museum when the material was transferred. All subseries of series 9 are arranged chronologically. Subseries 1 of Series 9 contains correspondence of the Western Union Telegraph Museum. A large portion of this correspondence concerns donations of old telegraph equipment to the museum, 1925-61. Another example of a donation is a letter from Samuel Morse to Sam Houston, written in 1860, concerning telegraph service to Texas. This letter was given to the museum in 1928. All correspondence concerning donations is arranged in the order it was received by the museum. Other correspondence represented in this subseries concerns Western Union Telegraph Museum donations to other museums. These include the Franklin Institute, 1933; the Smithsonian Institution, 1913-38, 1959-61; and the U.S. Army Signal Corps Museum, 1954-56. One folder contains correspondence regarding donations to other museums, 1933-43. This subseries also contains correspondence of Samuel Morse, 1937-38, and Henry Sayre Potter, 1930's, regarding paintings for the museum. There is also correspondence with several movie studios seeking the museum's help with several motion pictures, 1938-1939. Also included is correspondence concerning telegraph history. Three final folders contain miscellaneous correspondence concerning many aspects of WUTC museum administration and business. Subseries 2 consists of technical materials such as blueprints, diagrams, specifications, instruction or repair manuals, and documentary photoprints of telegraph instruments donated to the WUTC museum over the years. There are also many newspaper articles, pamphlets, newsletters, etc., concerning either general telegraph equipment or specific instruments that were a part of the museum. Specific information includes a brochure on the Barclay Printing Telegraph System, with diagrams, specifications, and blueprints, and a brochure for Dial Telefax, the first facsimile system. Also included are photoprints, diagrams, and blueprints of the Morse Recorder of 1844; information concerning Western Union work for the U.S. Air Force; an information pamphlet on the "Brown" Drum Cable Relay; a set of Western Union code books; and various papers related to encoding. The more general records include information on vacuum tubes, belt conveyors, and teleprinters. Subseries 3 contains various Western Union Telegraph Company records that the museum acquired over the years. A wide variety of records are represented, from an 1884 Rule Book to notebooks detailing museum acquisitions, 1937-41. The subseries also contains two Western Union code books from 1900; a Western Union Telegraph Museum visitor book, which lists visitors from 1933 to 1949; newspaper articles; photoprints; miscellaneous materials regarding the Western Union exhibit at the Chicago "Century of Progress" Exposition in 1933; and several drafts and copies of an article by J. Schmid entitled "The Western Union Engineering Museum." Other materials found in this subseries include: a Western Union log, n.d.; a Western Union Tariff book, 1910; a certificate of appreciation from the U.S. Army; and many museum object tags and object captions from former WUTC Museum exhibits. Subseries 4 of Series 9 consists of Western Union Telegraph Company employee records given to the museum. These include Col. R.E. Clowry's membership certificate from the Old Time Telegraphers Association and his record of military duty; Horatio S. Myers's membership certificate from the Order [of] Railway Telegraphers; and the Association [of] Western Union Employees membership cards of C.F. Stearns. General employee records include a report from the Women's League of Western Union, various pamphlets describing employee economic plans, two charts listing Western Union officers, and a flow chart detailing the distribution of power. Subseries 5 contains many different publications, arranged alphabetically, that the Western Union Telegraph Museum acquired over the years, most relating to either the telegraph industry or Western Union. Many newsletters are contained, including: "Journal of the Telegraph," "The Electrical World," "Dots and Dashes," "The Aerovox Research Worker," "Telegraph and Telephone Age," "Telegraph and Cable Illustrations," "Telegraph World," and "New York Museum of Science and Industry News Letter." There are several publications celebrating anniversaries, including the 100th anniversary of Morse's telegraph patent; the Telegraph Centennial of 1944; an Edison Centennial dinner in 1947; and the 100th anniversary of telegraph service in Texas.Catalogues in the subseries include several describing equipment for Outside Plants, 1920, '22, '24, '26, '29, and a general Western Union catalogue of 1934. Also included is a Western Union brochure for its exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair; a Smithsonian Institution Guide, 1941; various articles and photoprints detailing the first facsimile machines; a 1920 Census Atlas of the United States; and a round-by-round account of the James Sullivan and Jim Corbett heavyweight title fight of 1892. SERIES 10 (boxes 52-84) contains a wide variety of reference material, 1868-1964, collected by the Western Union Telegraph Company. It is divided into three subseries, each with a published and an unpublished section, arranged alphabetically. Subseries 1 contains reference materials produced by the WUTC between 1870 and 1964. The published material includes: Western Union News, 1914-18; "Roaming in the Western Union," 1932; Sales Sparks, 1938; "Western Union Golf News," 1942; and Western Union Technical Review, 1947-59; and various catalogues. There are also publications on Multifax facsimile machines, Multiplex printers, and telegraph poles. This subseries also includes substantial unpublished material produced by Western Union. Some of the materials include blueprints and specifications of exhibits for the Century of Progress Exhibition, reports on facsimile machines, reports on the Reperforator switching system, specifications and blueprints for various telegraph equipment, and reports on tickers. Subseries 2 contains reference material produced by others about Western Union between 1913 and 1951. The published information includes a 1913 report by the Interstate Commerce Commission regarding a uniform system of accounts for telegraph and cable companies; various newspaper clippings; and articles in various publications about the WUTC. The unpublished material includes: a program of the commencement exercises of the WUTC Messengers School; license agreements, 1916-40 between the WUTC and Western Electric; and a 1944 progress report on the centennial of the telegraph celebration. Subseries 3, General Telegraphy, 1866-1964, contains the greatest amount of reference material in Series 10. There are diverse publications relating to the telegraph industry, including: "American Telegraph Practice," 1913; "Electrical Engineer," 1894; "The Electrician," 1887-88; Journal of Electricity, 1923; Journal of the Telegraph, 1868-78; "The OHMITE News," 1937; and "Radio World," 1925-32. Published papers by distinguished telegraph men such as P.J. Howe, Walter P. Marshall, Sydney Sparks, Robert G. Kreer, and Fernand E. d'Humy can be found in this subseries. Other published material includes various catalogues, a program of the Eighth American Scientific Congress in 1940, newspaper and magazine articles, instruction and rule books, Postal Telegraph pamphlets, Sources d'Energie (in French), and manuals on wire and wiring. There is also a smaller section of unpublished reference material on general telegraphy. Included is a report on the Bartlane type XII machine, a report on the New York-Azores submarine cable, blueprint drawings of stock ticker parts, a plan for the improvement of telegraph service, and two reports on stock tickers. SERIES 11 (boxes 85-111) has a wide variety of photographs representing all aspects of Western Union and the telegraph industry. Subseries 1 has photos of Western Union buildings from all over the world, dating from the nineteenth century until 1965. Buildings which are identified include those in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, New York City, Key West, Fla., Rochester, N.Y., Hamilton, Ohio, Morristown, N.J., Sacramento, Calif., Cumberland, Md., and Sandesville, Ga., among others. Unfortunately, most of the photoprints are not captioned. Subseries 2, Poleyards and Construction, contains two folders of photoprints of telegraph poleyards, where poles are prepared for service. There are also photoprints of the locations where the finished poles were used. Some of the locations represented are: Minneapolis, Minn.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Nashua, N.H.; Slidell, La.; Rutherford, N.J.; Tacoma, Wash.; Miami, Fla.; and Elizabethtown, N.J. Folder three contains specifications and photoprints for pole line construction. Western Union put many photographs into albums which are found in subseries 3. The albums themselves have been taken apart, but the order has been preserved. These albums cover a wide variety of subjects, including antiquated telegraph instruments; Telefax switching systems; switchboard, plugs, and jacks; office interiors; tickers; "Western Union Automatic Telegraph"; and miscellaneous equipment. Subseries 4 contains photos of a wide variety of telegraph equipment. Specific photographs include: early telegraph tickers, 1866; the Western Union cable boat Robert C. Clowry, 1903; switching systems; "Multifax," c. 1940; equipment from World War II; Varioplex equipment; Carrier systems; Mono Pulse Printing Telegraphic Sets; and Deep-Sea Cable exhibit material. There is also a great deal of miscellaneous equipment which is not identified. Subseries 5, Facsimiles, contains many news photographs transmitted via the facsimile process in the 1920s through the 1940s. These news photos can be found throughout the subseries. There are also many other photos, some in albums, that were transmitted by facsimile, but were not for newspaper use. Boxes 98 and 99 contain negatives of various photographs. The majority of facsimile photographs are from Europe and many of the subjects concern WorldWar II. Subseries 6 contains photos of Western Union people. There are many photos of Western Union messengers, but the individuals are not identified. Several photos of Western Union presidents can be found in the subseries, including J.L. Egan, John W. Mackay, and prints of paintings of Samuel F.B. Morse. There is a photoprint of a group of telegraphers representing those at the Battle of Gettysburg, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of that battle. There is also a folder of photos of drawings of Pony Express riders. Also included are many photos of individuals and groups not identified. 1993 Addendum of approximately 83 cubic feetThe Western Union Telegraph Company (WUTC) Records in the Archives Center consist of three separate acquisitions. The first portion, acquired by the Smithsonian in 1971, consists of manuscript materials collected for the company's Western Union Museum. Totalling approximately 60 cubic feet, it documents both the history of the company and the telegraph industry in general. It includes photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, and reference materials, but very few administrative records. This portion of the collection is fully processed and described in a published finding aid. Two additional groups of WUTC materials were acquired from the company in 1993. These consist of approximately 65 cubic feet of corporate records, ca. 1860s-1960s, and approximately 18 cubic feet of legal records, ca. 1850s-1920s. Neither group has been processed. There is a preliminary box inventory for the corporate records but no inventory for the legal records. The corporate records include: articles of association, charters and by-laws; minute books of the WUTC Executive Committee (1864-1943) and of the Directors and Stockholders (1880-1943); minute books of subsidiary companies; letterpress copy books containing outgoing correspondence of the company president (1865-1893); agreements and other documents between WUTC, its subsidiaries and other companies; annual reports (1874-1984); rule books, instruction manuals, pamphlets, and other corporate publications; publications and reports relating to the history, development, and regulation of the telegraph industry (1950s-1960s); four volumes of personnel rosters (1880s-early 1900s); and several volumes of newsclippings. The legal records include: contracts with other telegraph companies; deeds and leases of property for offices and other facilities; patent files; and contracts for telegraph service. The records document both routine and major activities, expansion of the WUTC system, and the decline of service in later years. AcknowledgmentsThe Western Union Telegraph Company Collection was transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Electricity on June 10, 1986. I would like to thank the Division of Electricity for their help and cooperation in the transfer of the collection, particularly Dr. Bernard Finn, Eliot Sivowitch, and Anastasia Atsiknoudas. Several members of the Archives Center have helped me process this collection. Thank you to Fitzroy Thomas, who helped process Series 6: Patents. Special thanks to my loyal volunteers, Don Darroch and Grace Angle, who processed many series of this collection without complaint at the difficulty or time involved. My summer intern, Wendy Barton, was very helpful in the early processing of this collection and I would like to thank her for her efforts. I particularly would like to thank another summer intern, Jonas Zuckerman, for helping me in the final arrangement and description of this collection. His consistent and concerted efforts have helped realize the publication of this Register. I also would like to thank Evon Underhill, who helped me type portions of this finding aid. I want to thank Nancy Brooks for her skillful editing of this document. Most particularly, I would like to thank John Fleckner for his continuing guidance. Container ListWestern Union Collection, 1848-1961(36 cubic feet; 105 DB; 3 F/0) BOX/ FOLDER
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