| Web Sites: |
Sites whose primary purpose is telegraph history or research: |
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Distant Writing - Electric Telegraphy in Britain |
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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
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Donard de Cogan's Papers - original research on aspects of cable and telegraph history |
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The Electromagnetic Telegraph - the development of International Morse Code, and related matters |
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Telegraph Equipment - Brooke Clarke's reference website has historical and patent information on the development of the telegraph |
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Telegraph-History - John Casale's articles on U.S. telegraph history |
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Related websites with useful content: |
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Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research Group - Salford University’s communications research and outreach project |
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| Museums: |
Museums whose primary focus is telegraphy
(landline or cable): |
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French Cable Station Museum - Orleans, Massachusetts |
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Heart’s Content Cable Station Provincial Historic Site - Newfoundland |
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Porthcurno Telegraph Museum - Cornwall |
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Valentia Heritage Centre - Ireland |
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Museums with some telegraphy equipment
(landline or cable) on display: |
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American Museum of Radio & Electricity - Bellingham, WA |
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Locust Grove - Poughkeepsie, NY: Samuel Morse Historic Site |
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Musée des arts et métiers - Paris: An extensive collection of telegraph and cable material, only a small selection of which is on display.
See catalogue entries for cable, or search the objects catalogue for specific terms. |
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Museum of the History of Science - Oxford: The Marconi collection and some cable material. See below for the Marconi archives |
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Powerhouse Museum - Sydney, Australia - has a small collection of cable samples and related material |
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Resources for Learning in Scotland - telegraph resources in Scottish museums, libraries, and archives |
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Science Museum - London - has a large amount of early material, but much of it not on display nor listed in the on-line catalogue. The associated Science & Society Picture Library may also be useful. |
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Smithsonian Institution - Washington DC |
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| Archives: |
Archives and Libraries with significant collections
of telegraph books and documents: |
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BT Archives (London). British telecommunications history: library; original source documents, including early records of the private telegraph companies; photographs, films and videos |
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Cable & Wireless Archive - a large collection of documents and artifacts (mostly held at Porthcurno; see above), catalogued at the National Archive, London |
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The Imperial College and Science Museum Libraries (London and Wroughton) have some early submarine cable and telegraphy manuscript material |
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The Institution of Civil Engineers (London) has some early submarine cable and telegraphy material in its library. The Virtual Library offers on-line access to archive material, although membership or a subscription is required to view much of the content |
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The Institution of Engineering and Technology (London) has important collections of early submarine cable and telegraphy material.
Archive Catalogue direct link: search for “submarine cables” and “submarine telegraphy” |
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Kelvin letters and papers at the University of Glasgow |
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King's College, London has an archive of material bequeathed by Charles Wheatstone on his death in 1875, although much of his apparatus has been dispersed |
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Library and Archives Canada has telegraph and cable material distributed throughout its collections |
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Library of Congress (USA) has telegraph and cable material distributed throughout its collections |
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Maps - the David Rumsey Historical Maps collection includes many with early cable routes shown |
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The Marconi Archive (Bodleian Library, Oxford) catalogue is now on line |
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The New York Public Library Research Libraries have telegraph and cable material, mostly at the main branch and the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL). Search Subject: "Cables, Submarine", for example |
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Documents from the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) are held by: |
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National Maritime Museum (London): Archive Catalogue (search for "Telegraph Construction") |
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Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (Cornwall): Alcatel (Telcon) archive |
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Merseyside Maritime Museum (Liverpool): included in the BICC archive |
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Allan Green has written an excellent summary of the history of Telcon and its successor companies, which includes additional information on access to archive material (54KB PDF) |
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The Smithsonian Institution Library (Washington DC) has a large collection of works on the history of electricity which includes much telegraph material |
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Tyne & Wear Archives Service (England) has the archives of cable ship builder Swan Hunter, and of other ship builders in the area. |
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| Catalogues: |
Trade catalogue archives which include telegraph equipment: |
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Instruments for Science: Scientific Instrument Trade Literature at the Smithsonian Institution |
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Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin |
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The Scientific Instrument Commission has a comprehensive directory of trade catalogue sites |
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| Collections: |
Private collections of telegraph equipment and documents: |
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K0IU Telegraph Collection |
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K4TJP Telegraph Collection |
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Morsekey.net - Eliseo Chiarucci’s collection of Italian and other instruments, telegraph maps and books (in Italian) |
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Signa Telegraph Collection - Gustavo Coll, Uruguay |
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The Sparks Telegraph Key Review - Russ Kleinman's collection |
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Telegraph Instruments of Europe - Fons vanden Berghen's collection |
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The Telegraph Office - Neal McEwen’s collection |
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The Vibroplex Collector's Page - Randy Cole’s collection |
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W1TP Telegraph & Scientific Instrument Museums - Tom Perera's collection |
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| Search: |
Useful search resources, including newspaper archives: |
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British History Online- digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. A number of references to cable and telegraph may be found using search |
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British Newspapers 1800-1900 indexes a number of newspapers. Pay-per-view, but searching may reveal useful sources. |
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The British Colonist Archive 1858-1910 has many articles about cables, particularly those of the West Coast of Canada.
Thanks to the Rough Radio website for this link. |
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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Archive 1841-1902 has some articles about cables, mainly those terminating at New York. |
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California Digital Newspaper Collection (from 1849 on) has many articles about cables terminating in California, and worldwide. |
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Google Book Search- includes many early works on telegraphy and cables
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Google News Archive Search - searches multiple on-line newspaper archives. |
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The Guardian and Observer (UK) Archives have many articles about cables and cable laying, but are pay-per-view. Searching is free. |
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Internet Archive- the text section includes some works on telegraphy and cables; the Prelinger Archive has a number of short films on telegraphy and communications which may be viewed on line or downloaded |
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The New York Times Archive 1851-1980 has many articles about cable laying, particularly early expeditions and significant later projects |
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The London Gazette - The Official Newspaper of Record carries official, regulatory and legal information. Many interesting snippets may be found here, back to well before the electric telegraph era. |
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The Times (London) Archive 1785-1985 has many articles about cables and cable laying, but is pay-per-view. Searching is free; some libraries have subscription access to the full content. |
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Patent search: |
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British & European Patents at IPEXL Patent Search |
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US Patents at Google Patents |
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Ship and Crew search resources: |
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Cableships at Atlantic-Cable.com |
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Crew Agreements- resources for finding crew agreements, including those for many cable expeditions of the 19th and 20th centuries |
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The Crew List Index Project- further resources for finding ship information and crew agreements |
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Crew List Name Search - subscription service at Find My Past, but searches are free |
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