Subseries contains letters to and from notable figures in telegraph history, as well as ordinary people, documenting the evolution of the telegraph and its impact on interpersonal communications. Notable items include a letter from telegraph inventor Samuel F. B. Morse to Samuel J. Hitchcock of New Haven, Connecticut, dated September 27, 1842. Morse informs Hitchcock that he will not be able to take on Hitchcock’s son as a student of painting because he, Morse, is preparing to present his invention to the United States Congress. Also present is a letter from Stephen J. Field, then the Attorney General of California, to his brother, Cyrus W. Field, the businessman who financed the laying of the transatlantic cable, dated November 10, 1861. This letter includes a newspaper clipping printing the first message sent across North America by the new transcontinental telegraph, from Stephen J. Field to Abraham Lincoln, assuring the President of California’s support for the Union during the Civil War. Other notable letters include one from Canadian politician Alexander McClellan Mackay to American industrialist Peter Cooper (July 17, 1857), in which Mackay informs Cooper of work being done to lay and repair telegraph lines connecting Newfoundland and Nova Scotia with the proposed Atlantic Cable; and two letters from Harold, a Communications Specialist with the U.S. Army working as a military telegrapher during World War I, addressed to his father, discussing his experiences in France while serving with the British Expeditionary Forces (January 27, 1918 and October 10, 1918). The majority of the subseries consists of letters to and from Carrie Deppen, a telegraph operator for the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Company based in Myerstown, Pennsylvania (1860-1868). Most of the letters are addressed to Carrie Deppen from friends, fellow telegraphers, and romantic interests. Some were sent in telegram envelopes. Also present is an exchange of letters between Deppen and G. A. Nicholls, superintendent of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Company, in which Deppen asks for a raise.