Scope and Content Note
The papers of Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) span the years 1793-1944, with the bulk of the material dating from 1807 to 1872. The collection is composed primarily of incoming correspondence, but also contains letterbooks, diaries, scrapbooks, clippings and newspapers, printed matter, photographs, maps, drawings, and a tape of the first telegraphic message annotated by Morse. The papers are arranged in nine series: General Correspondence and Related Documents; Family Correspondence; Letterbooks; Diaries and Notebooks; Scrapbooks, Clippings, and Newspapers; Printed Matter; Miscellany; Additions; and Oversize.
Morse had a long and distinguished life, succeeding first as an artist between 1811 and 1837 and then as an inventor from 1832 to 1872. As an artist, he excelled in portrait painting and founded the National Academy of Design in New York in 1826, serving as its first president until 1842. As an inventor, Morse is most widely known for the invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph. He was also interested in abolitionism and in the nativist movement.
The bulk of the General Correspondence and Related Documents series consists of correspondence contained in bound volumes. Correspondence from 1811 to 1838 focuses particularly on Morse's career as an artist. Morse's letters to his family during this period describe his studies in England during the War of 1812 and his subsequent struggles to support himself as a portrait painter in the United States. The letters are replete with observations on American, British, and European art and artists. The series also includes letters to and from artists Washington Allston, John Chapman, Thomas Cole, John S. Cogdell, Horatio Greenough, Charles B. King, Charles Robert Leslie, Gilbert Stuart, and Benjamin West. There are numerous exchanges with the Marquis de Lafayette, whose portrait Morse painted. As an artist, he was interested in the developing science of photography and corresponded with Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre on the subject.
Much of Morse's correspondence from 1832 to 1844 concerns his development of the telegraph. Beginning in 1848, Morse became embroiled in law suits over patents which lasted until his death. He carried on a particularly acrimonious dispute with Joseph Henry, who also claimed to have invented the telegraph. Other correspondence includes scientific exchanges with Louis Agassiz and business-related correspondence with Ezra Cornell, Cyrus W. Field, Amos Kendall, and Francis O. J. Smith. Morse corresponded with numerous lawyers and political leaders, including DeWitt Clinton, Jeremiah Evarts, Richard Rush, and William H. Seward. His correspondence with James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Smith Grimké, and William Wilberforce reflects his interest in abolitionism.
Unbound items in the General Correspondence series consist largely of Morse's letters to his parents, brothers, and wife. The bulk of Morse's outgoing correspondence from 1854 to 1872 is contained in a series of letterbooks, several of which are indexed.
The collection contains numerous diaries. Apart from a journal kept by Morse in 1805 at age fourteen, each of the diaries describes his European travel. The earliest entries record Morse's voyage to and from England in 1811 and 1815. While the diary does not cover the intervening years when Morse attended the Royal Academy of Art, it does contain several pages of notes entitled "Thoughts and Observations on the Fine Arts." The bulk of the diaries date between 1829 and 1831 when Morse resided in Italy. These diaries, which also contain numerous sketches, record Morse's travels, his observations on art and architecture, and numerous descriptions of Roman Catholic religious services and ceremonies.
The Miscellany series includes the papers of Ludwig ("Louis") Clausing, a German immigrant and anti-Catholic figure whom Morse befriended after returning to the United States in 1832. After Clausing's death Morse acquired some of his personal effects. Scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and other printed matter pertaining to art and the telegraph comprise a separate series which also provides biographical information on Morse.
The 1996 Addition consists mainly of correspondence. Included are eighteen letters from Morse to his brother, Sidney E. Morse, acquired by the Library in 1992, and four letters transferred from the division's Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection. This correspondence is supplemented by photocopies of Morse's letters located in the New-York Historical Society. The addition also contains microfilm of family correspondence reproduced by the Library in 1944 before it was given to the Library.
The 2019 Addition includes a Magnetic Telegraph Company certificate account book, two receipts from George Hart, treasurer, to John Norton, shareholder, and two letters from Norton to Hart. The remaining correspondence in the addition consists of an 1847 letter of introduction for Robert Dodge from Morse to Robert Walsh, consul general of the United States in Paris, and an 1826 letter from Morse to his grandmother, Elizabeth Breese, regarding the death of his father, Jedidiah Morse.