| Web Sites |
Sites whose primary purpose is telegraph history or research |
| |
|
Distant Writing - Electric Telegraphy in Britain |
| |
|
History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
| |
|
The Electromagnetic Telegraph - the development of International Morse Code, and related matters |
| |
|
Donard de Cogan's Papers - original research on aspects of cable and telegraph history |
| |
|
Telegraph-History - John Casale's articles on U.S. telegraph history |
| |
Related websites with useful content |
| |
|
Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research Group - Salford University’s communications research and outreach project |
| |
|
| Museums |
Museums whose primary focus is telegraphy (landline or cable) |
| |
|
Valentia Heritage Centre - Ireland |
| |
|
Porthcurno Telegraph Museum - Cornwall |
| |
|
Heart’s Content Cable Station Provincial Historic Site - Newfoundland |
| |
|
French Cable Station Museum - Orleans, Massachusetts |
| |
|
| |
Museums with some telegraphy equipment (landline or cable) on display |
| |
|
Museum of the History of Science - Oxford: The Marconi collection and some cable material. See below for the Marconi archives. |
| |
|
Resources for Learning in Scotland - telegraph resources in Scottish museums, libraries, and archives |
| |
|
Science Museum - London |
| |
|
American Museum of Radio & Electricity - Bellingham, WA. |
| |
|
Locust Grove - Poughkeepsie, NY: Samuel Morse Historic Site |
| |
|
Smithsonian Institution - Washington DC |
| |
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/modern/marconi/marconi.html |
| Archives |
Archives and Libraries with significant collections of telegraph books and documents |
| |
|
BT Archives (London). British telecommunications history: library; original source documents, including early records of the private telegraph companies; photographs, films and videos. |
| |
|
Cable & Wireless Archive - a large collection of documents and artifacts (mostly held at Porthcurno; see above), catalogued at the National Archive, London |
| |
|
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (London) has important collections of early submarine cable and telegraphy material.
Archive Catalogue: search for “submarine cables” and “submarine telegraphy” |
| |
|
The Marconi Archive (Oxford) is now catalogued and on line |
| |
|
Documents from the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) are held by:
National Maritime Museum (London): Archive Catalogue (search for "Telegraph Construction")
Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (Cornwall): Alcatel (Telcon) archive
Merseyside Maritime Museum (Liverpool): included in BICC archive
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) |
| |
|
Kelvin letters and papers at the University of Glasgow |
| |
|
The Smithsonian Institution Library (Washington DC) has a large collection of works on the history of electricity which includes much telegraph material |
| |
|
| Catalogs |
Trade catalog archives which include telegraph equipment |
| |
|
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin |
| |
|
| Collections |
Private collections of telegraph equipment and documents |
| |
|
K0IU Telegraph Collection |
| |
|
K4TJP Telegraph Collection |
| |
|
Morsekey.net - Eliseo Chiarucci’s collection of Italian and other instruments, telegraph maps and books (in Italian) |
| |
|
Signa Telegraph Collection - Gustavo Coll, Uruguay |
| |
|
The Sparks Telegraph Key Review - Russ Kleinman's collection |
| |
|
Telegraph Instruments of Europe - Fons vanden Berghen's collection |
| |
|
The Telegraph Office - Neal McEwen’s collection |
| |
|
The Vibroplex Collector's Page - Randy Cole’s collection |
| |
|
W1TP Telegraph & Scientific Instrument Museums - Tom Perera's collection |
| |
|
| Search |
Useful search resources |
| |
|
Google Book Search - includes many early works on telegraphy and cables
|
| |
|
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. |
| |
|
Crew Agreements - resources for finding crew agreements, including those for many cable expeditions of the 19th and 20th centuries. |
| |
|
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. |
| |
|
