Samuel Morse and the Telegraph by Rod Whigham

(He first made a sculpture as a study for the painting.) After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist produced his masterpiece, the Dying Hercules. At the academy, he was moved by the art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. In England, Morse perfected his painting techniques under Allston's watchful eye by the end of 1811, he gained admittance to the Royal Academy. The two men set sail aboard the Libya on July 15, 1811. Allston arranged-with Morse's father-a three-year stay for painting study in England. Allston wanted Morse to accompany him to England to meet the artist Benjamin West. This work attracted the attention of the notable artist, Washington Allston. His image captured the psychology of the Federalists Calvinists from England brought to North America ideas of religion and government, thus linking the two countries. Morse expressed some of his Calvinist beliefs in his painting, Landing of the Pilgrims, through the depiction of simple clothing as well as the people's austere facial features.

Self-portrait of Morse in 1812 ( National Portrait Gallery) He married his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Griswold on August 10, 1848, in Utica, New York and had four children (Samuel b. She died on February 7, 1825, of a heart attack shortly after the birth of their third child. Morse married Lucretia Pickering Walker on September 29, 1818, in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1810, he graduated from Yale with Phi Beta Kappa honors. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman and Jeremiah Day and was a member of the Society of Brothers in Unity. Īfter attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to study religious philosophy, mathematics, and science. His first ancestor in America was Anthony Morse, of Marlborough, in Wiltshire, who had emigrated to America in 1635, and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. Morse strongly believed in education within a Federalist framework, alongside the instillation of Calvinist virtues, morals, and prayers for his first son. He thought it helped preserve Puritan traditions (strict observance of Sabbath, among other things), and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain and a strong central government. His father was a great preacher of the Calvinist faith and supporter of the Federalist Party. Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the first child of the pastor Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826), who was also a geographer, and his wife Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese (1766–1828). One of the earliest existing American photographs by Dr John William Draper Daguerreotype of Samuel Morse Professor of Art while at NYU in 1839.

Samuel Morse and the Telegraph by Rod Whigham