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This collection primarily contains architectural drawings, photographs, business records and reference materials related to the projects and designs of architectural and engineering firm Abbott, Merkt and Company. A subsidiary portion of the collection includes drawings, photographs and papers related to the life and career of Richard H. Tatlow, III, president of Abbott Merkt, as well as the firms and agencies for which he also worked.

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.