The only telegraph machine in Orange County sits across from the only other telegraph machine in Orange County, polished relics to the first great breakthrough in mass communications, now all but ...

In the mid-1850s, Bloomington found itself hurtling into the machine age. The first railroads arrived in May and October of 1853 (the Illinois Central and what would become the Chicago & Alton ...

"Brown's diary is published with the permission of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Western Union Telegraph Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, ...