Lightning Man_ The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse - Kenneth Silverman [266]
CODA: 1872–2000
The encomia/ Golden Age, 13 Apr 1872. On April 5/ Memorial, 238. The most imposing/ California: Memorial, 1 g3–g4. The often cruel/ Resolved: Amanda Vail to C. H. Adams (copy), 18 Oct 1888, V-NYHS. The feud survived/ Daughter: Unidentified newspaper clipping of 1 Apr 1891, scrapbook entitled “Correspondence relating to Alfred Vail’s connection with the Electric Telegraph,” V. See also Cavanaugh, 56. By that time/ Desire: Susan Morse to SFB, 18 Jun 1841, M7. Supposed: Times, 8 Dec 1885. Morse’s son Charles/ See New Orleans Times-Picayune, 28 Jun 1900; New Orleans Health Department Death Certificates, vol. 122. Of Morse’s four children/ Crushing: Daily Picayune, 18 and 19 Jul 1876. Morse’s lightning survived/ On the centenary celebration see the documents and scrapbooks assembled by Leila Morse, Columbia University Library. In the new millennium/ On the present state of telegraphy see the current journal Morsum Magnificat; T. King, Modern Morse Code; and Morsels, the newsletter of the Morse 2000 Worldwide Outreach.
Acknowledgments
My liveliest thanks to
—the Library of Congress, the Maine Historical Society, the New-York Historical Society, the Olin Library of Cornell University, the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University, and the Smithsonian Institution Archives, for preserving and allowing me to study their voluminous collections of the papers of Samuel F. B. Morse and his family and associates.
—the other unique libraries, historical societies, and museums that gave me access to their smaller but invaluable collections of Morse material, including the Académie des Sciences (Paris); American Antiquarian Society; Archives of American Art; Bobst Library of New York University; British Library (London); Century Association; Cincinnati Historical Society; Clements Library, University of Michigan; Columbia University Library; Duke University Library; Historic Northampton; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Huntington Library; Institution of Electrical Engineers (London); Linda Hall Library; Maryland Historical Society; Massachusetts Historical Society; Metropolitan Museum of Art Library; Morgan Library; Morristown National Historical Park; Samuel Morse Historic Site; National Academy of Design; National Museum of American History (Western Union Collection); New Jersey Historical Society; New York Public Library; Phillips Academy Library; Princeton University Library; Public Record Office (London); Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Library; University of Rochester Library; A. S. W. Rosenbach Foundation; Vermont Historical Society; Woodruff Library, Emory University.
—the many expert curators and librarians at these repositories, particularly Nancy Cricco and Joan Grant (Bobst Library), Margaret Heilbrun (New-York Historical Society), Bruce Kirby (Smithsonian Institution Archives), Jennifer Lee (New York Public Library), and Laura Linke (Olin Library).
—New York University, my longtime second home, for a Research Challenge Fund Grant.
—Beth Phillips, for her photographs; Professors Richard R. John, Jill Lepore, and Paul Magnuson, for helpful information about Morse’s activities; and especially Professor David Hochfelder, assistant editor of the Thomas Edison Papers, for reviewing a draft of this biography, giving me the benefit of his precise technical understanding of Morse’s telegraph system.
—friends and colleagues whose companionship has been a delight and a boost, both those I have thanked in previous books and those I acknowledge now: Stan Allen, Ann Birstein, Fred Brown, Ed Cifelli, Elam and Mary Lou Collins, Charles DeFanti, Michael Dellaira, Dr. Stuart Feder, Judy Feiffer, Diane Jacobs, Richard Kaufman, Herb Leibowitz, David Levering Lewis,