Samuel F. B. Morse

Morse is probably best known as the inventor of the telegraph and for introducing the daguerreotype to America in 1839. Despite his eclipsed fame as a painter due to his genius as an inventor, Morse is one of the major artists of the American Romantic School. He studied with Benjamin West in London in the early 1800's and returned to America in 1815 to support himself as a portrait painter. He also assisted in the founding of the National Academy of Design and served as its president until 1845.