January 6 brings together milestones in communication, literature, and American political life. In 1838, Samuel Morse successfully demonstrated his telegraph system in Morristown, New Jersey, offering a new way to send messages across distance. Forty years later, poet, writer, and editor Carl Sandburg was born. His free verse drew on American life, and his work would earn him three Pulitzer Prizes, including two for poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. In 1912, New Mexico entered the Union as the nation’s 47th state.
The events suggest different ways a country takes shape: through new tools for connecting people, through writers who give voice to everyday life, and through changes to its political map. There is a fitting sense of beginnings in this early-January collection: a system demonstrated, a future writer born, and a state admitted. The season also invites a pause at the turn of the year, when looking back at such varied milestones can make the links between technology, culture, and civic identity easier to see.