After his return to the United States, Morse travelled to New Hampshire to look for portrait work to support himself. It was in Concord, in New Hampshire, where he met Lucretia Pickering Walker, whom he married two years later in 1818.
It is interesting to note here that, in 1820, a physicist in Denmark, Hans Christian Oersted, discovered that an electric current in a wire generates a magnetic field that can deflect a compass needle. This was to play a major role in the eventual design of electromagnetic telegraph systems.
In 1826, Samuel became a founder and the first president of the National Academy of Design, a business that helped promote sales for artists and to raise public attention to their work. Morse periodically acted as president of this organization for nineteen years.
Sadly for Morse, his wife died in 1825, followed one year later by his father, Jedidiah. Two years later, his mother, Elizabeth, also passed away.
