Telegrams are no more -- google it on the Internet and you will get lots of info about what they were, how used, content, brevity, etc. People had to pay per word, so messages were very concise and sometimes even cryptical.

For this first in the series, the theme will be "coming to town" -- written from the point of view that you are contacting someone to let them know that either you or someone they know is coming to see them -- up to you as sender of swap if you want to make up a back story, joke, make authentic to look like a telegram, etc.

All telegrams in this series will be mailed by the first of each month!

The 411 on Samuel Morse and the telegraph --

Samuel Morse was born in Charlestown, Mass. on 27th April 1791. He was not a scientist - he was a professional artist. Educated at Phillip’s Academy at Andover, he graduated from Yale in 1810 and he lived in England from 1811 to 1815, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1813. He spent the next ten years as an itinerant artist with a particular interest in portraiture.

He returned to America in 1832...It was on this homeward voyage that he overheard a shipboard discussion on electromagnets. This was the seed out of which the electric telegraph grew. Morse is remembered for his Code, still used, and less for the invention that enabled it to be used...

The first message sent by the electric telegraph was "What hath God wrought," from the Supreme Court Room in the Capitol to the railway depot at Baltimore on May 24th 1844.

(Info from: www.home.clara.net/rod.beavon/samuel.htm)

Let's have fun with this - send naked or in an envelope, look online for ideas and tips to make your telegram and its contents authentic