History To-Go: Early Communication

Today, we communicate with modern technology. To talk to each other we video chat, text, or talk on the phone. News is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through TV and the internet, with constant updates. For people in the past, things weren't so simple. To talk to friends and family that lived too far away to visit, you had to write a letter. It could take weeks or months to get a response. Telegraphs in the 1800s were similar to texting today - if someone had a telegraph station nearby, they could send a very short message across the country for a fee, but the number of characters you could use were limited. News came from two main sources: newspapers and word of mouth. Newspapers would run stories about things happening around the world, but it was often delayed. By the time you were reading about something exciting that happened in a different part of the country, it might have happened a week or more ago!

January's "History To-Go" box features Early Communication! You can come by the museum starting Tuesday, January 3, 2023 to pick up a box (limit 2 per family). Limited supplies, so come early! You can select the links below to access the box contents if you cannot get to the museum to pick yours up!

Early Communication: Crossword Puzzle
Early Communication: Vocabulary
Early Communication: Word Search
Early Communication: Instructions
Early Communication: Morse Code alphabet
Early Communication: Newspaper

Thanks to funding from the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex Foundation Inc, and the Arts Council of Fayetteville we are offering FREE "History To-Go", take home craft kits.

NEXT MONTH: WORLD WAR II