Things You Didn't Know
The president of Western Union played a role in the United States’ purchase of Alaska.
In his early years, Thomas Edison was one of the fastest Morse Code operators for Western Union. He left Western Union, but later returned as an inventor of the carbon transmitter, which he sold to Western Union for $100,000.
Western Union helped standardize time nationally in 1870.
In 1884, Western Union was selected as one of the original stocks in the first Dow Jones Average.
Western Union introduced singing telegrams in 1933, and in 1958 introduced Telex.
Norman Rockwell was commissioned by Western Union in the mid-1930s to do paintings that were featured on the top of the Easter, Valentine’s, and Christmas telegram greetings.
