Achievements
The Western Union Telegram® message is a time-honored icon of communication — immortalized in film, television, a song titled “Western Union” recorded on Elvis Presley’s album “For the Asking,” and the Zane Grey novel Western Union. Telegrams predate the radio, telephone, movies, and television. While Western Union is best known for its telegram and money transfer services, the company has also made its mark bringing many “firsts” to the marketplace.
These firsts include completing the first transcontinental telegraph line, introduction of the stock ticker, launching a consumer charge card, offering inter-city facsimile service, and launching the United States’ first domestic communications satellite into space.
In its more than 150-year history, these and other innovations changed the way the world conducts business and how people communicate.
