Florida Morse Telegraph Club

Welcome to the Official Website of the Florida Chapter of The Morse Telegraph Club, Inc. - an association of retired telegraphers, telegraph industry employees, amateur radio operators, historians, and others with an interest in the history of telegraphy and the telegraph industry and live in Florida.

About the Florida Morse Telegraph Club (FMTC)

Started

International Morse Telegraph Club

The Morse Telegraph Club (MTC) is an association of retired telegraphers, telegraph industry employees, amateur radio operators, historians, and others with an interest in the history of telegraphy and the telegraph industry. Membership in MTC is open to anyone with an interest in the history of telecommunications.

Founded in 1943 as a fraternal organization for retired telegraphers, MTC has evolved into a nonprofit historical and educational association. MTC chapters and individual members throughout the United States and Canada assist with the design and construction of historically authentic telegraph exhibits at public museums, present talks on the history of telegraphy, assist students and educational institutions, and demonstrate telegraphy at historical events, steam train excursions, and similar functions.

MTC also publishes an excellent quarterly journal entitled “Dots and Dashes,” which contains articles about telegraph history, first person accounts of those employed in the telegraph industry and information about the evolution of telegraph technology.

MTC is the World’s leading authority on telegraph history. Our historians have assisted authors, documentary film producers, playwrights, and even major Hollywood directors needing advice or technical assistance. For example, MTC played a significant role in Spielberg’s “Lincoln” and the recent Disney “Lone Ranger” movies.

MTC also maintains an archive of telegraph documents, photos, instruments and ephemera. For example; when telegraph instruments, such as keys, relays, sounders, signs, clocks or the like are donated to MTC, they are retained, restored and then repurposed in museum exhibits throughout North America. MTC is an IRS recognized 501 (c)(3) charity incorporated in the State of Illinois.

Your membership is strongly encouraged. It provides support for our historical and educational mission. It ensures that future generations will understand the incredibly transformative impact of telegraphy on the human experience and better understand the nature of the information age.