| 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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Telegraph Lore - Greg Raven's site on Morse telegraphy |
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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, cable, or radio) 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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Royal Navy Museum of Radar and Communications - at HMS Collingwood near Southampton, England. Advance appointment required - see site for details |
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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.
See also the Science Museum Library catalogue. |
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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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The International Telecommunications Union (Geneva) has been co-ordinating worldwide communications since 1865. The ITU's website provides PDF documents from all international conferences held from 1865 through 2006, although many are in French only |
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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 National Library of Australia has telegraph maps, images, and other material 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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Science Museum (Swindon branch): Berner (Telcon) collection (PDF) |
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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 may include telegraph equipment |
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Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum. The applied electricity section of this 1877 catalogue describes the most significant and important collection of early telegraph instruments and material ever assembled |
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CNAM, Paris: Scientific instrument trade catalogues from the Alain Brieux collection |
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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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National Library of Australia Newspapers - not just Australian news, as many articles were reprinted from papers in London and elsewhere in the British Empire. |
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The New York Times Archive 1851-1980 has many articles about cable laying, particularly early expeditions and significant later projects. Some later content requires a subscription |
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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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US Patent Models at the Smithsonian. A new index to the museum's collection of over 10,000 models includes many telegraph-related inventions. Two volumes, downloadable in PDF format at no charge. |
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United States Historical Maps & Charts: |
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Office of Coast Survey
Historical Map & Chart Project - some charts may show cable routes and landings off the coast of the Unites States |
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Worldwide library catalogue search: |
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Worldcat - consolidated catalogues of many, but not all, libraries worldwide |
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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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