March 23, 2001

Smithsonian Libraries' Exhibition Looks Back On 150 Years of Global Communications

"The Underwater Web: Cabling the Seas," a new Smithsonian Libraries exhibition, demonstrates how the world suddenly became smaller 150 years ago when a telegraph cable laid under water in the English Channel opened communications between England and France. The exhibit opens March 23 and continues through March 2002, in the Smithsonian Libraries Gallery at the National Museum of American History, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.

By 1866 underwater cables laid in the North Atlantic permanently linked Europe and America, and by 1872 other cables reached India, Australia, China, and Japan. Information of all kinds was made available at the speed of electricity, changing forever the way we live. The exhibition follows the progress of international communications from that first link in 1851 up to 2001. Today the early copper wires are long gone; optical fibers make up the information highway of the 21st century.

"Today we use underwater cables more than ever. Every time we reach overseas via the Internet or the telephone, we tap the underwater web," notes Bernard S. Finn, guest curator of this Smithsonian Libraries' exhibition.

The first modern account of these events, The Atlantic Cable (1958), was written by Bern Dibner to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an exciting but only momentarily successful attempt to link the two continents. The author was an electrical engineer, inventor, and philanthropist whose collection of books, now in the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, was donated to the Smithsonian in 1976. "The Underwater Web" will display Dibner's account and many rare books dating back to the 1790s. Many are from the Dibner donation, others are from the extensive collections of the Smithsonian Libraries.

Finn, curator of electricity collections at the National Museum of American History, assembled those Libraries' volumes and objects from the museum's rich collections to create this Libraries' exhibition.

Highlights include:

• Samuel F. B. Morse telegraph key and receiver, 1850s
• Sections from the first underwater cables, 1850 and 1866, made of stranded copper wires surrounded by gutta percha insulation and wrapped in iron wires added for strength and protection
• Lord Kelvin's copy of On the Origin and Progress of the Oceanic Electric Telegraph (1858) from the author John Brett
• Robert Dudley's lithograph of laying cables in the ocean from William Russell's The Atlantic Telegraph (1865)
• An 1898 cablegram
• A 1929 fax receiver used in New York to receive images from London
• The first transatlantic telephone cable, 1956, which included underwater vacuum-tube amplifiers
• A 1984 optical amplifier

The exhibition was funded by TyCom. Copies of a large-print guide and the text of the exhibition in braille are available for use in the gallery. An illustrated take-home brochure with suggested readings is available free for all visitors. An online version of "The Underwater Web" can be seen on the Libraries' home page at www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions.

The Smithsonian Libraries is a 22 branch system with online exhibitions, rare books, and information services online at www.sil.si.edu. The library catalog is at www.siris.si.edu. The Libraries serves the Smithsonian and the public with information and reference support. Its collections number 1.5 million volumes including 40,000 rare books, 2,000 manuscript groups, 180,000 microfilm and -fiche, and nearly 300,000 commercial trade catalogs dating back to the 1850s and representing over 30,000 companies.

Smithsonian museums on the National Mall are open 10:00 am to 5:30 pm daily (except December 25). Admission is free.

Note to media editors: Digital images are available at http:\\newsdesk.si.edu. Slides are available from libmail@si.edu or call Public Information Officer (202)786-2875.

# # # #