Museum Artifacts

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), an artist and inventor of the telegraph, was in Paris in 1839 sharing the scientific and celebrity stage with Daguerre. The two inventors shared notes on their inventions and Morse returned to the US with a camera, perhaps the first camera in the United States...

This telegraph register, manufactured in accord with the Morse patent, was installed in 1848 in South Bend, reputedly the first telegraph office in Indiana. Stamped on the base is "j. Burritt & son ithaca." Pulses of electricity caused the two vertical electromagnets (on the right) to pull ag

Alfred Vail made this key, believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, as an improvement on Samuel Morse's original transmitter. Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving coded electrical signals over a wire, which was successfully demonstrated

Motorola produced this BPR 2000 model pager around 1982. Prior to the widespread availability of inexpensive cell phones many people carried telephone pagers to stay in contact with work or home. A miniature radio receiver, a pager alerted the user that someone needed to talk to them and provided

This embroidered mourning picture was embroidered in Lititz, Pennsylvania, about 1816, using silk thread, silk chenille, gold spangles, watercolor, and ink on silk fabric. In a gilded wood frame, it measured 25" x 25", and its black mat is reverse-painted on the glass. Mourning designs appear in

Muhammad Ali gained fame for his boxing skills, charisma and the controversy he generated outside the ring...

General Philip H. Sheridan loved music and took a personal interest in his bands. Performing under fire was commonplace for bands under his command. They performed at the front during battle playing the liveliest airs in their repertory.

Speaking before hundreds of thousands of people can be nerve-racking. But you'd never guess that watching Naomi Wadler. At age 11, she rose to national prominence as a leader in the 2018 March for Our Lives to end gun violence. She remembers becoming politically aware at age 5 when George Zimmerman

The National Cash Register Company produced this Model 421 cash register around 1914. The register was used in a Marshall Field & Company department store. The register has three columns of keys for entering numbers, and a fourth column of function keys. The operating crank is on the right si

Physical Description White cotton with gunner's mate patch on left sleeve. Specific History This jumper or shirt would have been worn by an enlisted seaman.