On This Day: August 16, 1858 First Transatlantic Telegraph

On August 16, 1858, the first transatlantic telegraph was sent from Queen Victoria to the President of the United States, James Buchanan. It took over 16 hours to transmit her message.

1. Newspaper clipping from The Patriot and Terra-Nova Herald (St. John's, N.L.), 1858-08-23 - "First Message by the Atlantic Cable." 

Courtesy of the Memorial University of Newfoundland's Digital Archive Initiative.

2. Queen Victoria, 15 May 1860, by J.J.E. Mayall. Printed in carbon c.1889-91 by Hughes & Mullins Commissioned by Queen Victoria. 

Courtesy of the Royal Collection/Fenton and Cameron Royal Collection RCIN 2931295. 

To those of us accustomed to modern messaging technology, 16 hours to send a message seems like a lifetime, but in 1858, it was a vast improvement over traditional mail - it could take upwards of 10 days for transatlantic messages to be sent by ship. 

Once Queen Victoria's message was received by President Buchanan, the laborious process was repeated for his reply. 

3. Newspaper clipping from The Patriot and Terra-Nova Herald (St. John's, N.L.), 1858-08-23 - "First Message by the Atlantic Cable." 

Courtesy of the Memorial University of Newfoundland's Digital Archive Initiative.

4. James Buchanan, 1859, by George Peter Alexander Healy. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; 

transfer from the National Gallery of Art; gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, 1942, NPG.65.48.

So where does Newfoundland fit into this? The telegraph cable that allowed these early messages to be sent was between Valentia Island in Ireland, and Bull Arm in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Newfoundland had been chosen as an endpoint due to it's proximity to Europe. The cable was laid by the USS Niagara and HMS Agamemnon. 

5. Artifact on loan from The Rooms, 974.50.1c

Only a few weeks after its first message between the Queen and the President, the cable from Valentia to Bull Arm failed. It wasn't until 1866, when the SS Great Eastern laid a new cable from Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, that reliable transatlantic telegraph communications were established.