Artist and inventor Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) is credited with developing the first practical telegraph instrument, an apparatus he formally demonstrated on 24 May 1844. Shown here is the "outgoing" paper tape containing the famed message "What hath God Wrought?," which was sent by Morse on the wire from the Supreme Court chamber in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., to his assistant, Alfred Vail (1807-1859), who was stationed at the Mount Clare railroad depot in Baltimore, Maryland. In this dramatic demonstration, Morse proved the telegraph a success. Four tapes of the message sent that day were produced: this strip of the outgoing message sent from Washington, D.C.; a tape recording the incoming message simultaneously in Baltimore; an outgoing repeat-back tape sent from Baltimore by Vail; and a tape recording the repeat-back message in Washington. The whereabouts of all but one tape, Vail's outgoing strip from Baltimore, are known.

Morse's outgoing message, shown here, was inscribed by him and presented at the time of the demonstration to Miss Annie G. Ellsworth, the young daughter of his friend Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (1791-1858), commissioner of patents. It was Annie who selected the text from the Bible (Numbers XXIII, 23) and who also traced in heavy pen and ink over the pencilled letters Morse had written under each code character. Seventy-eight years later, in 1922, Annie Ellsworth's daughter, Mrs. George Inness, gave the tape to the Library of Congress.

John J. McDonough, Manuscript Division