Morse: A Pioneer of Progress, From His Works of Art to his Code

This is part of a series of great inventors and human progress.

Samuel Morse portrait of his daughter Susan

Few figures in history embody the intersection of art, technology, and the human drive for understanding and innovation as vividly as Samuel Morse and his concept of “Intellectual Machinery.” Although best known for inventing the telegraph, and the now-iconic Morse code, Morse was initially a dedicated painter who aspired to blend artistic insight with the communicative power of technology. His journey from artist to inventor was driven by overlapping ambitions, and his needs to support his second wife and seven children.

Science and Arts

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was the eldest son of the Reverend Jedidiah Morse, a notable geographer and clergyman, and Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese. From an early age, Morse was immersed in an environment that emphasized education, intellectual pursuit, and public service. His father's influence played a significant role in shaping Morse's worldview, combining a deep moral conviction with an interest in the sciences and arts.

Morse attended Yale College at the age of 14, where he studied religious philosophy, mathematics, and the rudiments of electricity, an emerging field at the time. While at Yale, Morse developed a keen interest in art and demonstrated an exceptional talent for painting, which led him to pursue a career as an artist. He studied art in England from 1811 to 1815, training under some of the most respected artists of the time and gaining a reputation as a skilled portraitist.

Upon returning to America, Morse established himself as a painter, focusing on grand historical scenes and portraits of prominent figures. However, the lack of patronage and financial stability in the American art scene left Morse struggling to support his young family. Despite his early successes, his artistic career did not flourish as he had hoped, and he faced significant personal setbacks, including the tragic death of his first wife, Lucretia, while he was away working.

Chance Encounter

Morse, who was the first Professor of art at an American college, New York University, eked out a living, with the support of his brother and was provided some financial help through his professorship, as well as studio space in the tower of the university’s new building on Washington Square, where Morse worked, slept and ate. This period of hardship marked a turning point, pushing Morse towards new opportunities in technology and innovation. The inspiration to shift from art to telegraphy came during a voyage from Europe in 1832, when Morse learned about the recent discoveries in electromagnetism from a fellow passenger, Dr. Charles T. Jackson (who later claimed Morse stole his ideas). This encounter sparked his curiosity and led him to think about using electrical signals for communication, an idea that gradually took precedence over his artistic pursuits.

Samuel Morse Telegram Frame - Canvas Stretcher

The Narrative of Transformation

In contemporary society, the relevance of "Intellectual Machinery" lies in its encouragement of interdisciplinary innovation. We see this today in areas like user experience (UX) design, where understanding human psychology, artistic creativity, and technical engineering are all essential for creating intuitive, effective products. Morse's approach can also be seen in modern technologies like the internet, which combines communication theory, electrical engineering, and even elements of storytelling. His legacy encourages us to transcend narrow professional boundaries and embrace a more holistic approach, blending diverse areas of expertise to tackle today’s complex problems. Technological advancements are rapidly transforming society, I believe that Morse's approach serves as an inspiration for how we can leverage diverse skills to address complex challenges.

Furthermore, Morse's invention of the telegraph, which he developed in collaboration with Alfred Vail and, not having expertise in the science of electricity, Leonard Gale a chemistry professor at the University of the City of New-York. Their work, based on earlier work by European inventors like Baron Pavel Schilling and Joseph Henry, was revolutionary in its impact on society. It transformed how information was shared, shrinking distances and creating new possibilities for communication. In many ways, Morse laid the groundwork for the interconnected world we live in today. His vision of using technology to bring people closer, to share knowledge at the speed of thought, resonates deeply in our modern, digitally-connected era. Morse didn't just create a tool; he envisioned a world where barriers to communication could be overcome, fostering greater unity and understanding.

The Intersection of Art and Technology

“The eye while in the act of perception cannot keep its attention long fixed upon a single point with more facility than the mind can keep its attention fixed upon a single idea.” ~ Samuel Morse

At the heart of Morse's endeavors was a belief that art and technology shared a profound, underlying unity. His famous words “If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any desired part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence might not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity,” are more than a prophecy of the telegraph they capture his vision of making the invisible visible, whether through paint on canvas or through the electric pulse of a wire. Morse's innovation was rooted in the same impulse that guided his paint brush: to communicate across distances, and to render thought into form.

In his earlier career as an artist, Morse painted "Gallery of the Louvre," a monumental work depicting numerous masterpieces housed in the famed museum, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, as well as works by masters including Titian, Veronese and Rubens. This painting, with its careful curation of works from different masters, was an exercise in what Morse called "Intellectual Copying." He differentiated between "Mechanical Copying", the rote duplication of visual elements, and "Intellectual Copying," which entailed an understanding of the essence or principles behind the original work. This distinction mirrors Morse's later work developing telegraphy, where he sought not merely to replicate a signal but to create a new, abstract language of dots and dashes, a symbolic and intellectual system of communication.

Samuel Morse painting "Gallery of the Louvre"

Bittersweet Convergence

Morse's transition from painting to technology was neither a sudden abandonment of art nor a failure, as some contemporaries suggested, but rather a transformation driven by the evolving landscape of American society. The art studio he turned into a laboratory, cluttered with galvanic batteries and coiled wires, reflected an America at the cusp of a technological revolution. The image of dusty canvases turned to the wall while telegraphic experiments took center stage embodies the poignant convergence of the old world of artistic individuality with the emerging world of mass communication and practical invention.

Interestingly, Morse's work with the telegraph echoed his artistic practice in more ways than one. His students, initially disheartened by the shift, described the transformation of his studio as bittersweet. The once vibrant space filled with canvases and brushes became cluttered with wires, batteries, and clockwork components. Some students lamented the loss of his artistic focus, missing the energy and passion that he brought to painting, they “longed to see him calling into life events in our country’s history.” Despite their disappointment, many came to admire Morse’s dedication to his new pursuit, recognizing that his artistic ingenuity was being redirected into this groundbreaking technology. His "Canvas Stretcher" telegraph, a receiver literally framed by the same wooden stretchers he would have used for his paintings, serves as a physical metaphor for the continuity between his two vocations. The telegraph, in its nascent form, was not yet a polished machine but rather an experimental apparatus, a kind of canvas upon which Morse painted with electricity. Just as in painting, where the artist chooses what to include and what to leave out, Morse's telegraph was a study in selecting signals, crafting a message from the interplay of presence and absence, dots and dashes, currents and interruptions.

Signal and Noise

In "Gallery of the Louvre," Morse also demonstrated a fascination with the interplay of visibility and invisibility, a theme that would carry over into his telegraphy work. The painting employed devices of visual impedance, artworks positioned to both reveal and conceal, guiding the viewer's eye in deliberate patterns. This echoed the on-off binary logic Morse used to devise the telegraph code, where meaning was created as much by interruption as by signal. Morse's conception of communication, whether through oil and canvas or electricity and code, was fundamentally about control: controlling what is seen, what is said, and what is felt, channeling attention with purpose.

Morse’s embrace of technology did not represent a diminishment of his artistic sensibility but rather an expansion of it. He saw the telegraph as part of a broader mission to unify disparate parts into a meaningful whole, a vision deeply rooted in the Protestant reformist idea of Technologia, the integration of art, science, and moral purpose. He described the telegraph wires as "nerves which are diffuse, with the speed of thought, a knowledge of all that is occurring throughout the land," envisioning an America brought closer together, not just by wires, but by a shared network of understanding. His vision of the telegraph as "the great system of nerves that will make the world one great Sensorium" suggests an artist’s touch in conceptualizing technology as an extension of human perception.

Samuel Morse and his Recorder

Ultimately, Samuel Morse’s life work exemplifies the idea of "Intellectual Machinery", the blending of creative, mechanical, and intellectual pursuits. For Morse, painting and invention were two sides of the same coin: both were means of making the intangible tangible, of connecting minds across distances. In his hands, the telegraph was not merely a machine; it was a canvas for the expression of human thought, an embodiment of the same artistic ideals he had once pursued with a paintbrush. Morse’s journey reminds us that the boundaries between disciplines are often fluid, and that true innovation comes from the willingness to see the world, and the tools at our disposal, as more interconnected than we might first imagine.

The life of Samuel Morse is a study in progress, not just for his contributions to communication technology but for the remarkable narrative of transformation his life represents. Morse’s story is that of a man who refused to be confined by the traditional boundaries of any single discipline. His journey from a struggling artist to the inventor of the telegraph illustrates the importance of adaptability, curiosity, and resilience, qualities that are highly relevant today.

Stay curious

Dr Colin W.P. Lewis

Notes: This is part of a series of great inventors and human progress.

Pioneer of Progress: Despite his struggles Morse was the first Professor of Fine Arts at an American college, and founded the National Academy of Design. He subsequently ran for Congress and mayor of New York. Today, his art graces the walls of the world’s most famous museums. In his most celebrated life's work, he invented a machine that was to transform commerce, communication, transportation, military affairs, diplomacy, and the course of the modern world.

Refrences

Canvas Stretcher image from The Smithsonian Institute

Jilted: Samuel F. B. Morse at Art’s End

United States Senate: “What Hath God Wrought”: Morse’s Telegraph in the Capitol

Quotes from: Kenneth Silverman, Lightning Man: The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003)

Artwork from The Metropolitan Museum, Gallery of the Louvre

Photo: Morse with his recorder - Wikipedia