Evening star., 1944-04-30
Capital Sidelights
BIZ Will p. Kennedu,

Miss Leila Livingston Morse, grand
daughter of the inventor of the tele-
graph and only grandchild born in his
home, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y, is to take
an active part in the centennial cele-
bration program being planned by a
joint committee of Congress and by the
National Telegraph Centennial Com
mittee. Like her grandfather, Miss
Morse has had two careers. He was
first great artist and then invented
the telegraph and the Morse code. She
was first concert singer and then
successful businesswoman Now she is
doing war work, and most appropriately
is with the Signal Corps on communi-
cations service. --...-...~
Al Either Miss Morse or some member of
the Morse family is to be invited to un-
veil the memorial tablet in the Capitol
on May "a, the executive vice chair
man, Representative A. L. Bulwinkle,
has said. t
Miss Morse herself is to christen a
Liberty ship named for her grand
father in Baltimore that same day. She
also will attend the unveiling at the
Capitol and the banquet in the Statler
Hotel that evening. She has done
more than 20 years of research on the
life of the inventor and emphasizes
that in the family he was ALWAYS
known as Finley" At Hyde Park four
years ago she interviewed President
Roosevelt regarding plans for the
centennial celebration. She now is
serving as consultant for both the
congressional and national committees.
Miss Morse likewise is compiling a
scrapbook on the centennial for the
Library of Congress and is arranging
for number of exhibits and window
displays in department, book and elec-
trical stores.
The Smithsonian Institution, the Ii
brary OF Congress and the District
Public Library are to have special ex-
hioitions in connection with the GEN.
tenary, and the Corcoran Art Gallery
Is expected to have on display the his
toric painting by Morse showing the
House of Representatives in session in
what in recent years has been known
as Statuary Hall. All members shown
IN this picture sat individually for their
portraits by Morse.
His granddaughter is we'll known
throughout New England where she
started a renaissance of the old New
England tavern as a center of hos
pitality and community life. She pur-
chased an old farm homestead in the
picturesque village of Monterey in the
Berkshire Hills and named her century,
and-a-half-old dwelling Brook Bend
Tavern from the vagaries of the
konkopot, famous trout stream that
winds turbulently in and out of the
12-acre estate.
Miss Morse is the great-grand-
daughter of DR.. Jedediah Morse,
father of American geography" Her
ancestry also embraces Anthony Morse
OF Wiltshire, England, who came to
this country in 1885; Lord Livingston
and the American branch of the fam
lily, the Beekmans, Van Broughs and
other founders" She tells an in
teresting story of how her great
grandmother wrote a letter to the fu-
ture inventor when he was an art
student under Benjamin West in Eng
land, admoniShing him to study hard
and exercise most rigid economy:
When your father and 1 were mar
ried his salary Gas pastor in Charles
town, Mass) was $3.50 year, with the
house and 20 cords of f1rewcod With
the blessing of Heaven we have main
tanned an expensive family, kept open
house for almost all who have come.
enemies AS we'll as friends have been
welcome"
Pointing out that her grandfathers
historic message, What hath God
wrought was based on the premise
that electricity is possible only as a
God-given trust, Miss Morse argues
that many subsequent scientific inven-
tions have contributed to daily physical
comfort, safety, public welfare and
economic progress. She enumerates