You’ve likely heard of Samuel F.B Morse, generally credited with the invention of the telegraph. But you might be less aware that the man who famously used his code to say “what hath God wrought?” was also an artist, in fact one of America’s best and most prolific portrait artists, one of our most gifted historical artists, and a leading figure in the development of an American school of art.
On October 20, 1924 an explosion occurred in the forward turret of the light cruiser USS Trenton. The event shocked the public, especially given that a very similar accident had already occurred aboard the Battleship Mississippi the previous June.