Series contains correspondence in the form of letters, telegrams, and postcards, along with telegram message blanks and telegram envelopes, documenting the introduction of the telegraph and its impact on communications. Message blanks are from Western Union, Postal Telegraph, and other companies. Envelopes are from large and small telegraph companies, including Western Union and Postal Telegraph, and date from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. Correspondence includes personal letters to and from telegraph operator Carrie Deppen of Myerstown, Pennsylvania, some of which were sent in telegram envelopes; a letter from telegraph inventor Samuel F. B. Morse; letters to industrialists Cyrus W. Field and Peter Cooper; and letters from a military telegraph operator in World War I to his father. Telegrams include older handwritten received messages and later typed ones; congratulatory messages for weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries; telegrams to and from G. W. Merriam, printer of dictionaries; and Western Union’s first mailgram transmitted by satellite (1974). Postcards include holiday greetings, images of telegraph stations, and novelty “telegram” designs.