Artist and inventor; born in
Charlestown, Mass., April 27, 1791; was son of
Jedediah Morse; graduated at Yale College in 1810, and went to
England with
Washington Allston in 1811, where he studied painting under
Benjamin West.
In 1813 he received the gold medal of the Adelphi Society of Arts for an original model of
a
Dying Hercules, his first attempt in sculpture.
On his return home in 1815 he practised painting, chiefly in portraiture, in
Boston,
Charleston (S. C.), and in New York, where, in 1824-25, he laid the foundation of the National Academy of Design, organized in 1826, of which he was the first president, and in which place he continued for sixteen years. While he was abroad the second time (1829-32), he was elected
Professor of the Literature of the Arts of Design in the
University of the
City of New York.
Previous to his leaving home he had become familiar with the subject of electromagnetism by intimate personal intercourse with
Prof. James Freeman Dana.
On his return passage from
Europe in 1832 in the ship
Sully, in conversation with others concerning recent electric and
[
297]
magnetic experiments in
France,
Professor Morse conceived the idea of an electromagnetic and chemical recording telegraph as it now exists.
Before the close of that year, a part of the apparatus was constructed in New York.
In 1835 he had a mile of telegraph wire, producing satisfactory results, in a room at the university, and in September, 1837, he exhibited it to some friends.
That year he filed a caveat at the Patent Office in
Washington, and asked Congress to give him pecuniary aid to build an experimental line from that city to
Baltimore.
A favorable report was made by the House committee, but nothing else was done at that session.
He continued to press the matter.
Morse went to
Europe to interest foreign governments in his discovery, but failed.
With scanty pecuniary means, he struggled on four years longer; and on the last evening of the session of 1842-43 his hopes were extinguished, for 180 bills before his were to be acted upon in the course of a few hours.
The next morning, as he was about to leave with dejected spirits for his home in New York, he was cheered with the announcement by a young daughter of the
commissioner of patents (
Ellsworth) that at near the midnight hour Congress had made an appropriation of $30,000 to be placed at his disposal.
A line was completed between the
Capitol at
Washington and the city of
Baltimore in the spring of 1844; and then from
Professor Morse, at the seat of government, to his assistant,
Henry T. Rogers (who died in August, 1879), in the latter city, passed the first message, “What hath God wrought!”
suggested by the fair young friend of the inventor.
At that time the Democratic National Convention was in session at
Baltimore, and the first public message that was flashed over the wires was the announcement of that convention to its friends in
Washington of the nomination of
James K. Polk for
President.
So was given the assurance that the great experiment had resulted in a perfect demonstration not only of the marvellous ability, but of the immense value, of the discovery and invention.
With that perception came violations of the inventor's rights, and for a long series of years most vexatious and expensive litigation.
But
Morse triumphed everywhere, and he received most substantial testimonials of the profound respect which his great discovery and invention had won for him. In 1846 Yale College conferred on him the degree of Ll.D., and in 1848 the Sultan of
Turkey gave him the decoration of the Nishan Iftikar. Gold medals for scientific merit were given him by the
King of
Prussia, the
King of
Wurtemberg, and the
Emperor of
Austria.
In 1856 he received from the
Emperor of the
French the cross.
of
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
In 1857 the
King of
Denmark gave him the cross of
Knight Commander of the first class of the Danebrog.
In 1858 the
Queen of
Spain presented him the cross of
Knight Commander of the Order of
Isabella the
Catholic; the
King of
Italy gave him the cross of Ss. Maurice and
Lazarus, and from the
King of
Portugal he received the cross of the Order of the Tower and the Sword.
A banquet was given him in
London (1856) by British telegraph companies, and in
Paris (1858) by the
American colony, representing nearly every State in the
Union.
In the latter part of that year, after a telegraphic cable had been laid under the
Atlantic Ocean (see
Atlantic Telegraph), representatives of
France,
Russia,
Sweden,.
Belgium,
Holland,
Austria,
Sardinia,
Tuscany, the
Papal States, and
Turkey met in
Paris, at the suggestion of the
Emperor of the
French, and voted to him about $80,000 in gold as a personal reward for his labors.
In 1868 (Dec. 29) the citizens of New York gave him a public dinner, and in 1871 a bronze statue of him was erected in
Central Park, N. Y., by the voluntary contributions of telegraph employes.
William Cullen Bryant unveiled the statue in June, 1871, and that evening, at a public reception of the inventor at the Academy of Music,
Professor Morse, with one of the instruments first employed on the
Baltimore and
Washington line, sent a message of greeting to all the cities of the continent, and to several in the
Eastern Hemisphere.
The last public act performed by
Professor Morse was the unveiling of the bronze statue of
Franklin in Printing House Square, New York, Jan. 17, 1872.
Professor Morse made the acquaintance of
Daguerre in
Paris in 1839, and from drawings furnished him by the latter he constructed the first
[
298]
daguerrotype apparatus and took the first “sunpictures” ever made in
America.
Some of the first plates are now in the possession of Vassar College.
He died in New York City, April 2, 1872.
