History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
Cyrus Field Atlantic Cable Collage
by Bill Burns
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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
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Cyrus Field Atlantic Cable Collage |
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At first glance, this collage of Cyrus Field, Atlantic Cable, and Great Eastern documents and images appears to have been assembled from original material. The collage includes a prospectus for the Atlantic Telegraph Company; a Matthew Brady photograph of Cyrus Field; a handwritten note about the first message through the cable, signed and sealed by Cyrus W. Field; a newspaper clipping showing the Great Eastern in 1860; and a notice of an 1866 “Banquet to Mr Field” from Harper's Weekly.
But a closer inspection shows that all the documents are reproductions. The prospectus and newspaper clippings are printed on one side only and age-spotted to look old; the photograph of Cyrus Field is a real photograph, but artificially aged with cracks in the emulsion; the note from Cyrus Field is printed rather than handwritten, and its wax seal has no distinguishable impression. Further, I know of no original Cyrus Field document with a wax seal. The collage appear to be assembled using photo corners and even a pin, perhaps to give a home-made look, but in fact everything is glued down to the red background, which is modern cardboard and shows no signs of age. As well as the nature of the documents themselves, the evidence that this is a reproduction is supported by my having seen three other copies of the collage, all virtually identical, with exactly the same five documents in the same condition, right down to the Cyrus Field note being torn in exactly the same way. The copies differ only in minor variations in the placement of the documents. I have also seen a single copy of a similar collage of Samuel Morse material, the same size and style as this cable collage. I believe that these collages were created no earlier than the late 1950s, when the hundredth anniversary of the first Atlantic cable was celebrated, and quite possibly much later than that. I'd be interested to hear from site visitors who own a copy of this or any similar collage, particularly if anything is known of its origin. |
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Last revised: 15 November, 2011 |
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