Jun 07, 2017 - Sale 2450

Sale 2450 - Lot 8

Price Realized: $ 1,690
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.) Chart of the Submarine Atlantic Telegraph Compiled from the Journal of Cyrus W. Field Esq. Hand-colored lithographed broadside map. 16 1/4x28 inches sheet size, wide margins; partially mounted to stiff board, mat stain, tears into image with desiccated tape stains at left and right, small punctured area in upper right border. Philadelphia: W.J. Barker & R. Kuhn, 1858

Additional Details

Pictorial map charting the track of the submarine telegraph cable across the Atlantic set against profile topography of the sea floor. A large portrait of the man responsible for the vision and completion of the cable, Cyrus W. Field, appears in the center of the map. Above Field, the ships Niagara and Agamemnon meet in the middle of the Atlantic, set to join their respective ends of the cable on July 29, 1858. Other informational and decorative elements on the map include schematic drawings of the cable and a table of the Telegraph Alphabet (Morse code). The first official transmission using the cable occurred on August 16th, 1858, as Queen Victoria's telegram of congratulations was successfully delivered across the ocean to President James Buchanan. The map is scarce, with one copy located in the Library of Congress.