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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

Memorabilia, Ephemera, and Promotional Material

The success of the cable in 1858 was a major event - some historians have compared it with the moon landing in our own era.  Of course promoters and hucksters jumped on the bandwagon to produce souvenirs, the most famous being Tiffany & Company's brass-bound cable samples, of which thousands were sold or given away.

Here are some of the other memorabilia, ephemera, and promotional items for the first Atlantic cable, and for subsequent cables.

Click on each item for the full story

 

Tiffany/John Reid cane

W. Pearce/M.G. Yniestra cane

Two canes with handles made from the 1858 Atlantic cable

 

19th Century Cable Pendants, Brooches, Charms, etc.

1858 Atlantic Cable Paper Knife

1867 Satirical Plate

1858 Atlantic Cable Ball
Invitation, Clyde Hotel

1858 Atlantic Cable
Ribbon, Albany NY

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Anchor made from wood taken from the Niagara, one of the ships used on the first cable expeditions

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1858 Atlantic Cable Album, with cable sample

1858 Atlantic Cable Seal

1857 Atlantic Cable Pendant

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1858 Atlantic Cable
Watch Fob or Charm

Cable Earrings

1858 Atlantic Cable
Watch Fob

Brass Snuff Box with section of
1858 Atlantic cable inset into the lid

L. Prang & Co. Trade Card for Albert W. Bee, Stationer, 169 Tremont St., Boston, showing Brother Jonathan and John Bull conversing across the Atlantic Cable. Dated 1877.

1858 Cable Souvenir
Emery Brothers, Albany NY

Photographic Card commemorating the laying of the 1866 Atlantic Cable,
with portraits and messages of Queen Victoria and President Johnson

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Candlestick made from
early submarine cable

1858 Atlantic Cable Display

German-Atlantic Telegraph Company
Commemorative Pocket Knife, circa 1903

Card and Credit Case from Brown, Shipley & Co., who offered banking and telegraphic bureau facilities to their clients (circa 1900)

Krakówska Fabryka Kabli SA
(Cracow Cable Factory)
Smoker's Companion

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The Time of Day at Any Place in the World
AT A GLANCE

Click here for the story of the
Commercial Pacific Cable Company

1858 Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth

1858 Atlantic Cable Display 1858 Cable Medal or Brooch

1910 French Cable Company
Fourth Annual Outing Program

Say It By Cable
1940 GPO poster by Lewitt-Him

1956 TAT-1 Cable Commemorative Silver Dish

1866 Atlantic Cable Badges

Last revised: 11 March, 2022

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: [email protected]

—Bill Burns, publisher and webmaster: Atlantic-Cable.com