Barbara Hodges recalls the artists commissioned to create first-hand impressions of the pioneering cable communications project between Ireland’s Valentia Island and America
The laying of the first transatlantic cable from Valentia, County Kerry 1857/66 coincided with the introduction of new technology in the use of wood-engraving for mass reproduction of line drawings. Dramatic sketches of the drama at sea by artists like John Isaac, Henry Clifford, Robert Dudley and Henry O’Neil greatly boosted the circulation of the London Illustrated News and Frank Leslie’s Atlantic Telegraph Cable Pictorial in New York. The objective of the cable pioneers was to build a complete global telecommunications network, the final link connecting Europe to America.
