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[[Image:Morse.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Samuel Morse]]

[[Image:Morse.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Samuel Morse]]

'''Samuel Finley Breese Morse''' was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died on April 2, 1872. He was the son of Jedidiah Morse, a geographer and Calvinist minister, and Elizabeth Breese.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morsehistoricsite.org/history/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Samuel Morse went to Yale College to study religious philosophy, mathematics, and the science of horses.  He made money at college by painting miniatures on ivory, and wanted to pursue a career in art, but his father did not want him to. He graduated from Yale in 1810, and became a clerk in a bookstore, but continued to paint. His abilities attracted the attention of several respected artists, and he went with them to England in 1811 to study painting. When he returned home in 1815, he worked as an itinerant painter, painting historical subjects and [[portraits]]. He opened a studio Boston, and in 1826, Morse helped to found the National Academy of Design, an organization that helped secure jobs for artists, taught the art of design, and displayed artists’ work in its gallery.  

Samuel F. B. Morse was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died on April 2, 1872. He was the son of Jedidiah Morse, a geographer and Calvinist minister, and Elizabeth Breese.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morsehistoricsite.org/history/morse.html |title=Samuel F. B. Morse |accessdate=2009-12-10 |work= }}</ref> Samuel Morse went to Yale College to study religious philosophy, mathematics, and the science of horses.  He made money at college by painting miniatures on ivory, and wanted to pursue a career in art, but his father did not want him to. He graduated from Yale in 1810, and became a clerk in a bookstore, but continued to paint. His abilities attracted the attention of several respected artists, and he went with them to England in 1811 to study painting. When he returned home in 1815, he worked as an itinerant painter, painting historical subjects and [[portraits]]. He opened a studio Boston, and in 1826, Morse helped to found the National Academy of Design, an organization that helped secure jobs for artists, taught the art of design, and displayed artists’ work in its gallery.  

In 1825, Morse was in Washington D. C. to paint a portrait commissioned by the Marquis de Lafayette, when a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father telling him that his wife was dead. Morse immediately left Washington for his home, but by the time he got there, she had already been buried. The knowledge that he was unaware for days of her sickness and death made him pursue a means of communicating information rapidly over long distances. The following year, his father died. His mother died in 1828, and Morse went on a trip to Europe in 1829 to recover from the shock. He returned in 1832, and on the voyage home, he had discussed electromagnetism with an eccentric inventor and doctor named Charles Jackson. Jackson told Morse that electricity could be carried over a very long wire, which made Morse think that there must be some way to carry messages over long distances using electric impulses instead of the slow methods used in those days. He made some sketches of an apparatus that could be used to accomplish this.  

In 1825, Morse was in Washington D. C. to paint a portrait commissioned by the Marquis de Lafayette, when a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father telling him that his wife was dead. Morse immediately left Washington for his home, but by the time he got there, she had already been buried. The knowledge that he was unaware for days of her sickness and death made him pursue a means of communicating information rapidly over long distances. The following year, his father died. His mother died in 1828, and Morse went on a trip to Europe in 1829 to recover from the shock. He returned in 1832, and on the voyage home, he had discussed electromagnetism with an eccentric inventor and doctor named Charles Jackson. Jackson told Morse that electricity could be carried over a very long wire, which made Morse think that there must be some way to carry messages over long distances using electric impulses instead of the slow methods used in those days. He made some sketches of an apparatus that could be used to accomplish this.