In addition to his inventive genius, Morse was one of the finest American artists of his day, being especially gifted in portrait painting. He was the founder of the National Academy of Design in New York City and served for nineteen years as its first president.
The son of a well-known and highly respected clergyman and geographer, Morse was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He received his education at Yale College, but he was not a serious student. He developed a fervent interest in painting miniature portraits and wanted to study art in London.
In 1832 Samuel Morse returned to Europe, intending to study art, but on his trip across he became engaged in a dinner conversation that changed his entire life.
Through it he conceived the idea of building a single-circuit electromagnetic telegraph. Although electric telegraphs had been proposed, and Joseph Heny had published a detailed account of an electromagnetic telegraph in 1831, Morse did not know this and for several years believed that he had proposed the first one. By 1835 he had constructed his first operating telegraph. Two years later Leonard Gale, a teacher of science at the University of the City of New York where Morse taught art, introduced him to the work of Joseph Henry. Then Joseph Vail, a member of a wealthy family which owned an iron works in Morristown, New Jersey, offered to provide him with materials and labor to build his models. These men became his partners in business.
By 1838 Morse had developed the Morse code, and he asked Congress for an appropriation to build a telegraph line long enough to prove the practical use of his idea. Congress refused. For eight disappointing years Morse clung to his dream, and along with Vail, Gale, and Congressman F. O. J. Smith, a third partner, continued to promote his telegraph.
In 1843 he again asked Congress for money and for months and months waited for action to be taken. Finally on the night before Congress was to adjourn, Morse was granted $30,000 to construct a telegraph
line from Baltimore to Washington. Jubilantly, Morse went to work, and on May 24, 1844, he tapped out his first message, "What Hath God Wrought!"
