Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born on April 27, 1791 in Charleston, Massachusetts. He was born into a wealthy family with two younger brothers named Sidney and Richard. His father, Jedidiah Morse was a minister, writer, geographer and a congregational clergyman. His mother was Elizabeth Ann Breese. When Samuel got older, he married a woman named Lucrece. Together they had three children, Susan (the oldest), Charles (the middle child), and Finley (the youngest) who was named after Samuel. Soon after having Finley, Lucrece died and Samuel later was remarried to one of his cousins. She was only twenty-six years old but he married her because she was deaf and dumb so he felt she could be dependent on him. Morse’s family grew with several more children. When Samuel was eight years old, he attended Phillip’s Academy in Andover, Massachusetts where his father was a trustee. Samuel was an unsteady student that was always getting in trouble for drawing and not paying attention. In 1805 he entered Yale College and graduated in 1810. Soon after, he convinced his parents to send him to London to study painting. He lived in England from 1811 to 1815 getting into Royal Academy in 1813. Samuel first began working after he graduated from Yale College as a clerk for Boston book publisher. Another job he had was painting which he studied in the U.S. and in Europe. He opened a studio to paint portraits, but was not very successful. People would go to his studio to look at his artwork but not to buy it. Soon after, he went from house to house asking people if they wanted their portrait painted for $15 but he was not successful in this either. Later in his life, he taught art at the University of the City of New York. He also ran for mayor of New York several times but always lost.Samuel Morse contributed many things to American society. In 1832 when returning from Europe from a period of art study on the ship Sully, Samuel overheard a conver...
