Samuel Morse was born in 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the USA. His father was the Reverend Jedidiah Morse, and he was the oldest child in his family. He went to a school called the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and in 1805 he went to Yale College. Yale is a very famous university in America. He graduated from Yale in 1810.

Samuel started working as a painter. Mostly he painted portraits (pictures of people), but he did some landscapes too. This painting to the right is one of his. What do you think of his ability as an artist? However, he wasn't making very much money at painting, so he began to invent things. He and his brother took out patents on three different pumps in 1817. Taking out a patent means that no-one else can copy that design without paying you for it.

By the time he was in his fifties and sixties, he was quite wealthy with the money he earned from his inventions, mainly the morse telegraph. It was being used all round the world, and people paid him for using it.   These photos are of his home, and you can see that he lived a very comfortable life. He finally died in 1872, at the age of 81.