Huntington Library Acquires Civil War Era Telegraph Papers

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens announced today its acquisition of personal papers of Thomas T. Eckert, head of the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps under President Abraham Lincoln and later the president of Western Union.

The archive includes materials related to inventor Thomas Edison’s first great electrical invention, the quadruplex telegraph, which allowed users to send four telegraph messages simultaneously, library officials said.

Original documents detail the drama and machinations that unfolded in the early days of telecommunication, when rival railroad barons vied for control of the lucrative telegraph business.

The archive also contains new information that highlights the USMT’s role in the 1862 campaigns of the Civil War, especially those in Virginia and Maryland, including the battle of Antietam.

It is The Huntington’s second acquisition of Eckert’s papers. In 2012, the institution made headlines with its purchase of the official telegraph ledgers of the USMT office in Washington that was headed by Eckert. The ledgers, spanning the years 1862-67, recorded nearly 16,000 Civil War telegrams, including exchanges between Lincoln, members of his cabinet, and officers of the Union Army. Roughly one-third of the messages were written in code.

The newly acquired papers comprise Eckert’s own personal files, including correspondence from his early Civil War work, as well as a previously unknown archive from his post-war career. The collection includes 217 items — letters, telegrams, photographs, receipts and other materials — that trace the growth, economics and politics of the U.S. telegraph network as it spread across the nation with the railroads.

“As society has come to rely increasingly on electronic communications, especially during the pandemic, this collection seems particularly relevant,” said Sandra Ludig Brooke, Avery Director of the library. “This acquisition has great research potential, and it dovetails beautifully with the library’s existing holdings, particularly in American technology and business enterprise.”

The newly acquired Eckert archive will be available for research after processing and cataloging. The papers acquired in 2012 have been cataloged and digitized, and the online catalog entry includes a link to the digital library. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the library’s reading rooms are closed for in-person research.