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This collection of contracts, patent assignments, other legal documents, and correspondence of Edison and others, deals with the development of the telegraph and the expansion of the telegraph network. There are 31 cataloged legal documents concerning his telegraphic patents, his company (Pope, Edison & Company), and its purchase by The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in 1870. Other contracts concern the early work of Samuel F.B. Morse and other inventors, and later telegraph companies.

The papers include correspondence, subject files, photographs, and printed materials. The majority of the collection concerns the mission of the American Red Cross to Russia in 1917-1918; Thacher served as a secretary of the mission. There are letters and telegrams by W.B. Thompson and Raymond Robins, records of supplies, shipments, and distribution reports and over 600 photographs from Russia, China, and Romania. There is substantial correspondence from 1918-1919 concerning Russia, including letters by Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and Lillian Wald. A substantial part of the collection concerns Russian war relief in 1941-1942, an area in which Thacher was active. Printed materials include a pamphlet and an article on Russia prepared by Thacher after his return from that country in early 1918.

The collection contains 1 letter to Sophie L. Goldsmith in 1930; 10 letters to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Bleibtreu (Helen Reinthaler Bleibtreu), 1955-1973; 1 letter to the cast of "Our Town" 1975