Original telegraph receiver used in Baltimore for the receipt of the first telegraph message, May 24, 1844. Designed and operated by Alfred Vail.

Also a letter dated January 20, 1898 from Stephen Vail to Hiram Sibley Jr. offering to sell the receiver to Cornell and establishing the provenance of the device. A second letter from Vail to W. E. Ball a representative of the Estate of Hiram Sibley from July 21, 1898 finalizing plans for the transfer of the device to Cornell and mentioning that a larger offer had been made, but he feels having the device at Cornell is more desirable. The letter mentions a photograph of the device is included. A photocopy of the photograph along with a copy of a third letter dated March 11, 1898 from Vail aknowledging receipt of $1,000 for the receiver is also included. A newspaper clipping from the Buffalo Express, May 22, 1898, describes the aquisition of the telegraph for Cornell.

Also a program for the centennial celebration of the Unites States patent system, November 23, 1936 in Washington D.C., at which the receiver was shipped on loan from Cornell and featured during the dinner. The program was owned by Executive Chairman of the event Thomas Midgley Jr. Cornell Class of 1911.

A working replica, 3D printout of the original telegraph is also included in the collection. In 2009, Cornell Professor Hod Lipson and members of his Creative Machines Lab team, including undergraduate students, used Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF), a family of manufacturing processes that create three-dimensional objects by depositing layers of material, to produce a working replica of Samuel Morse's original telegraph receiver. It marked the first time that this SFF process had been used to fabricate a complete, active electromechanical system.