Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse first made his name as a portrait painter. In 1832 he became professor of painting and sculpture at the young University of the City of New York, today's NYU, on Washington Square, and there he turned to a new idea: sending messages along a single wire. With help from colleagues he developed the telegraph and the code of dots and dashes that carries his name.

In 1838 he gave the first public demonstration of his telegraph in Washington Square Park, a stop on our Village walk. The government then paid for a line from Washington to Baltimore, strung on poles by Ezra Cornell, who later founded Cornell University, and on May 24, 1844, Morse sent the first official message from the Capitol: What hath God wrought. On our Cornell walk you meet that partnership again on the Arts Quad.