Ezra Cornell
1807 to 1874
Telegraph builder and co-founder of Cornell University
Business and money · Founders and leaders
Ezra Cornell was a carpenter and mechanic with little schooling who, in the 1840s, strung the poles for Samuel Morse's telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington, the first telegraph line of any length in the United States. He went on to build lines across the country, helped found Western Union, and became very rich. He also served in the New York State Senate.
In 1865 he and Andrew Dickson White founded Cornell University on his farm above Ithaca, on a radical idea for the time: a university open to anyone, teaching practical subjects beside the classics. On the Cornell walk, stand on the Arts Quad between the two founders' statues, which face each other across the lawn, then walk to Sage Chapel, where Ezra Cornell is buried.
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Where to meet them
Ithaca, New York
- Ho Plaza and Willard Straight HallStop 1, Cornell, the Arts Quad and the slope
- Arts Quad and the foundersStop 5, Cornell, the Arts Quad and the slope
- Goldwin Smith HallStop 6, Cornell, the Arts Quad and the slope
- Sage ChapelStop 7, Cornell, the Arts Quad and the slope
- Andrew Dickson White HouseStop 8, Cornell, the Arts Quad and the slope
- Andrew Dickson White statueDestination Book