Samuel Morse the Painter: The Artist Who Wired the World PEOPLE OF THE WIRE | MORSE CODE WORKS Samuel Finley Breese Morse spent his first career with a brush, not a key. He painted presidents, founded an art academy, and crossed the Atlantic to study the old masters. His portraits were respected across America, even if the big commissions he dreamed of often went to others. The turning point came in 1832 aboard the packet ship Sully. A fellow passenger demonstrated an electromagnet, and Morse filled his sketchbook with an idea: signals sent by wire, recorded as marks. The painter spent the next decade becoming an inventor. Key points - Morse painted the Marquis de Lafayette during his farewell tour of America - He kept painting for years while developing the telegraph to pay the bills - The Sully sketchbook is remembered as the telegraph's first draft - Two careers, one name: artist first, telegraph pioneer second Try it yourself Translate any text to Morse code and hear it with sound, free: morsecodeworks.com