Samuel F. B. Morse Papers
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872
setName: label: See more items in
content: Samuel F. B. Morse papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.6 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1826-2009
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.morsesam, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Records are arranged by type.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The bulk of this series has been digitized. Materials which have not been digitized include blank pages, blank versos of photographs, duplicates, and the microfilm reel. Morse's published book has had only the cover, title pages, and table of contents pages digitized.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Morse's biographical material records the $1000 gift to the National Academy of Design bequeathed in his will. Morse's correspondence as president of the academy details the conflicts with the American Academy of Fine Arts, and failed attempts to bring about a union of the two organizations. It also documents other academy business such as exhibitions and interactions with other arts institutions, as well as Morse's independent work as an artist receiving commissions. This correspondence is described in two itemized lists compiled by National Academy of Design staff members which are included in this series. Additional correspondence documents negotiations with Morse's son, Edward L. Morse, to secure the gift of the Morse papers that constitute this collection. 

Morse's writings and notes on art, primarily in the form of lectures and lecture notes, can also be found here. They include his "Discourse" on the National Academy of Design delivered on the academy's one year anniversary, a criticism of that address, and Morse's response to the criticism. Some of the loose notes were assigned an alphanumeric identification system that does not appear to be explained in the collection, but has been left as is. 

Printed material includes eleven articles about Morse, one 1871 edition of the publication Dots and Dashes, by the Morse Telegraph club, Inc., an obituary for Morse's granddaughter, Clara, and a catalog for the exhibition Samuel F. B. Morse: Paintings, Inventions, Documents (1956) at the Syracuse Museum of Art. Also found is  a copy of Morse's 1835 book Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States.

Photographs include a copy print of a photo of Morse taken at fifty-nine years of age, shortly after he sent his first successful telegram between Washington and Baltimore on May 24, 1844; three photographs taken at the April 1968 dedication of a plaque by members of the Morse Telegraph Club; a photo of a tablet on Morse's house; and a photograph of a man, probably Morse's son, William Goodrich Morse. Also found is a photo of a charcoal sketch by Morse of his niece, entitled "Lottie," and a photo of a sketch of an unidentified woman, by Kalman Oswald.