Today in Smithsonian History: July 19, 1854

Samuel Morse’s Experimental Telegraph from 1837. With this instrument Morse first demonstrated the receiving of electro-magnetic telegraphic messages. (Photographer unknown, circa 1920s, via Smithsonian Institution Archives)

July 19, 1854 In a letter to the New York Daily Times, responding to an editorial praising the Smithsonian and Secretary Joseph Henry, Samuel F.B. Morse writes that “the magnetic telegraph owes little, if anything, to Prof. Henry’s labors or discoveries, notwithstanding the labored and reiterated efforts to make that impression.” Morse’s attack comes in the wake of controversy over Henry’s dismissal of Assistant Secretary Charles Coffin Jewett and contradicts earlier statements by Morse. Henry had provided legal testimony for a telegraph entrepreneur contesting Morse’s patents.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives

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