Reception, Presentation,
Book Signing:

The Telegraph in
America, 1832-1920

 

CONTACT:          Colleen
M. Ryan, 518-428-9348




ALBANY, NY – February
11, 2013 – Long before we carried smart phones in our pockets, the
telegraph offered a revolutionary advancement in our ability to communicate
over vast distances. 

 

Historian, electrical
engineer and University Club board member David Hochfelder will discuss and
sign his book The Telegraph in
America, 1832–1920 (2012, The Johns Hopkins University Press) at a
reception at the University Club of Albany, 141 Washington Avenue at Dove
Street, on Tuesday, February 26 from
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

 

Dr. Hochfelder offers
readers a comprehensive history of this groundbreaking technology, which
employs breaks in an electrical current to send code along miles of wire. He examines the correlation between
technological innovation and social change and shows how this transformative
relationship helps us to understand and perhaps define modernity.

 

The telegraph
revolutionized the spread of information — speeding personal messages, news of
public events, and details of stock fluctuations. During the Civil War,
telegraphed intelligence and high-level directives gave the Union war effort a
critical advantage. Afterward, the telegraph helped build and break fortunes
and, along with the railroad, altered the way Americans thought about time and
space. Hochfelder thus supplies readers with an introduction to the early
stirrings of the information age.

 

The reception is free and open to the
public, but reservations are required and may be made by calling the University
Club at 518-463-1151 or online at www.uclubevents.blogspot.com . 

 

An assistant professor at the University at
Albany, Hochfelder specializes in the history of U.S. business and technology.
He also helps administer UAlbany’s public history program. Before joining
UAlbany, Hochfelder served as a research historian at the Thomas Edison Papers.
He is currently working on a social history of savings and investment. He has
appeared in two episodes of the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” series. 

 

This event is
presented by the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc., formed to
recognize and maintain the unique historic and architectural significance of
the University Club building and property, its historic neighborhood and the
city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901. Support
for educational programming presented by the University Club Foundation is
provided by AT&T. 

 



Colleen M. Ryan
www.uclubevents.blogspot.com
www.albanyroundtable.blogspot.com
@InterComCR
518.428.9348