Marshall Lefferts (1821-1876)

Marshall Lefferts was an engineer who was heavily involved in the development of the telegraph in the 1850s, and invented the "Lefferts Ramshorn," an insulator embedded in glass. He was the first to pay Thomas Edison a large amount of money for a project: $40,000 for a telegraphic machine to show gold prices. During the Civil War, Lefferts was a colonel in the 7th Regiment of the New York State National Guards, which had great prestige because it was composed of men of wealth and high social position. His written account of the New York City Draft Riots in 1863 has been preserved, as have his family papers.

1861 circa 5 years
Original Format:
Glass Negative Print
Mathew Brady
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