The online presentation of The Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library
of Congress comprises about 6,500 items, or approximately 50,000 images,
that document Morse's invention of the electromagnetic telegraph, his participation
in the development of telegraph systems in the United States and abroad, his
career as a painter, his family life, his travels, and his interest in early
photography, religion, and the nativist movement. ...The collection includes the original paper tape containing the first telegraph message,
"What hath God wrought?," sent on May 24, 1844.
