The full-length portrait of Susan Walker Morse (1819–1885), the eldest daughter of the artist, was painted during the crucial years of the invention of Morse's telegraph (ca. 1835–37). The painting shows the girl at about the age of seventeen, sitting with a sketchbook in her lap and pencil in hand with her eyes raised in contemplation. Although traditionally described as a Muse, the figure is more likely a personification of the art of drawing or design. Morse drew on the full extent of his European training, taking from the works of Rubens and Veronese in what was to be an ambitious farewell to his career as an artist. Stymied by a lack of financial success, he abandoned painting for science and inventing. This painting was first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1837, where it won enthusiastic praise.
　Susan married Edward Lind in 1839 and moved to his sugar plantation in Puerto Rico, returning often to New York to spend extended periods with her father, who had been left a widower when Susan was just six. She gradually grew less and less happy with her husband and plantation life. Lind died in 1882; in 1885, Susan set out to return to New York permanently but tragically was lost at sea.

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　　塞缪尔·莫尔斯（Samuel Finley Breese Morse，1791-1872)，是一名享有盛誉的美国画家和电报之父。1791年4月27日，莫尔斯出生在美国马萨诸塞州的查尔斯顿。1810年，莫尔斯毕业于耶鲁大学。1819年，莫尔斯在新罕布什尔州结婚，妻子在第四个孩子出生后不久的1825年去世。莫尔斯最初的职业是画家，曾任美国国家设计学院院长。1832年由于在一次航海中受到同船乘客杰克逊电学博士的影响，开始热衷于电磁感应的实验，他决定制造一台电报机。1837年，他发布了他的第一项发明，电信史上最早的编码，后人称它为“莫尔斯电码”，电报就是用它来传递信号的。1837年9月4日，莫尔斯制造出了第一台电报机。之后，莫尔斯计划在华盛顿与巴尔的摩两个城市之间，架设一条线路，美国国会经过长时间的激烈辩论，终于通过了拨款，1844年3月电报线路终于建成。1844年5月24日，莫尔斯在座无虚席的国会大厦里，用激动得有些颤抖的双手，操纵着他倾十余年心血研制成功的电报机，向40英里以外的巴尔的摩城发出了历史上第一份长途电报，电报报文是“上帝创造了何等奇迹！”，取得成功。1848年，莫尔斯在纽约再婚，妻子婚后也产下四子。1858年，欧洲许多国家联合给莫尔斯一笔40万法郎的奖金。在莫尔斯垂暮之年，纽约市在中央公园为他塑造了雕像，用巨大的荣誉，来补偿曾使这位科学家陷于饥饿境地的过错。1872年4月2日，81岁的莫尔斯在纽约与世长辞。