Building Stories: Thomas Edison
37 artifacts in this set
Daguerreotype of Thomas Edison as a Child, 1851
Photographic print
Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847, to former schoolteacher Nancy Elliot Edison and Samuel Edison, Jr., who ran a shingle mill and grain business in Milan, Ohio. He was the couple's seventh and last child (three older siblings died in early childhood). This daguerreotype, taken around age four, is the first known portrait of the future inventor.
Portrait of Thomas Edison as a Teenager, circa 1865
Photographic print
A ruddy Thomas Edison sat for this portrait around age fourteen, while he was working on the Grand Trunk Railway. Edison sold popular newspapers and magazines, cigars, and candy to passengers traveling between his hometown of Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan. Edison also printed and sold his own newspaper, displaying the creative, entrepreneurial spirit that would characterize his life.
Smiths Creek Depot
Railroad station
The Smiths Creek Depot stood on the Grand Trunk Western Railway about nine miles southwest of Port Huron, Michigan. The railroad station was a center of 19th century small-town life. More than a place to catch a train, the depot was where customers sent and received packages and telegrams, caught up on the latest news, and shared gossip.
Menlo Park Laboratory
Laboratory
When Edison moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey, in spring of 1876 the laboratory building contained his entire operation -- a handful of collaborators, office, library, and machine shop as well as laboratory. As the scale of Edison's investigations grew so did the complex, but this building -- dedicated to experimental activities -- was always understood to be the heart of the enterprise.
Thomas Edison and Employees outside Menlo Park Laboratory in New Jersey, 1880
Photographic print
The names of "star" designers might lodge in our minds, just as the names of innovators like Thomas Edison do. But while the essential vision for a design might arise from an individual, it is typically collaboration that drives design ideas through to results. At the Menlo Park laboratory many experimenters undertook the research that made Edison's vision a reality.
Pipe Organ in Menlo Park Laboratory, Greenfield Village, October 26, 1929
Photographic print
The Roosevelt Organ Company presented a pipe organ to Thomas Edison in 1878. Edison and his workers used it to conduct sound experiments and for entertainment during work breaks. The original organ was destroyed in a fire in 1914. Henry Ford had this replica made in 1929 as part of the detailed reproduction of Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory in Greenfield Village.
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Francis Jehl at Menlo Park Laboratory during Light's Golden Jubilee, October 1929
Photographic print
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incandescent electric lamp, Henry Ford hosted the Light's Golden Jubilee in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford chose the occasion to dedicate Greenfield Village to his friend, Thomas Edison. During the festivities, Edison and former assistant Francis Jehl re-enacted the first successful light bulb test (1879) in Greenfield Village's detailed reproduction of Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory.
Menlo Park Library
Library (Building)
This building was built in late 1878 as Edison's work on electric lighting expanded. The first floor provided office space for accounting, bookkeeping, and patent applications; upstairs was a superbly stocked technical library. The building also played another key role: as a reception area for journalists and other visitors it provided a disarming first impression of Edison's success and ambition.
Menlo Park Machine Shop
Machine shop
The presence of a machine shop (and of foreman / head machinist John Kruesi) was fundamental to the success of Menlo Park. This well-equipped facility -- built to replace the small machine shop originally installed in the laboratory -- enabled Edison and his associates to not only rapidly prototype iterations of experimental devices but also facilitate their eventual, profitable manufacture.
Letter from W. B. Mayo to A. B. Pease regarding the First Contract Air Mail Flight (CAM-6), February 15, 1926
Letter (Correspondence)
After operating air mail flights itself for eight years, the U.S. Post Office Department contracted with commercial air carriers in 1926. The first two contract routes, connecting Detroit with Cleveland and Chicago, were awarded to Ford Air Transport, Ford Motor Company's airline subsidiary. Ford planes carried more than 32,000 pounds of mail before the contract ended in July 1928.
Thomas Edison in West Orange Laboratory, 1925
Photographic print
Inventor Thomas Alva Edison poses in his West Orange, New Jersey, laboratory where he directed teams of research assistants for nearly fifty years -- from 1887 until his death in 1931. More than half of Edison's 1,093 patents resulted from the collaborative work done in this complex, which became a model for modern research and development laboratories.
Thomas Edison's Black Maria Movie Studio, West Orange, New Jersey, circa 1894
Photographic print
Thomas Edison constructed the world's first film production studio behind his West Orange, New Jersey, laboratory in 1893. The Black Maria -- a slang term for the prisoner transport vans the building resembled -- was covered with tar paper, had a removable roof, and rotated on a track to capture sunlight. Here, lab assistants filmed short movies for Edison's Kinetoscope motion picture viewer.
Thomas Edison's Fort Myers Laboratory
Laboratory
This well-equipped laboratory enabled Edison to carry on his investigations even as he seemed to seek a break from business and other matters. The first building to be completed in Greenfield Village, it had a second experimental life, offering seclusion to a select group of Ford Motor Company engineers tasked with developing the Ford V-8 engine in the early 1930s.
Edison Homestead
House
Thomas Edison's great-grandparents fled to Canada after the American Revolution because they had sided with the British. Edison's grandparents started a farm and built this home there. As a boy, Edison enjoyed visiting the farm, where he played in the barn, went swimming, and fished in a nearby river.
"Vagabonds" Camping Party Leaving their Camp Site, August 1919
Photographic print
Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs embarked on a series of camping trips. They called themselves the Vagabonds. These vagabonds enjoyed retreating from the fast-paced world to explore nature and the pre-industrial countryside. Ford, at times however, could not pass up greeting local citizens who came out to meet them.
The "Vagabonds" with Family and Friends during a Camping Trip, 1920
Photographic print
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs made yearly camping trips between 1916 and 1924. They called themselves the Vagabonds. In 1920 they traveled to New York's Catskill Mountains. This was the first outing to include wives. The trips became decidedly more formal and less adventurous when wives came along. And Edison himself confessed that the fun was gone.
The "Vagabonds" on a Camping Trip, Lead Mine, West Virginia, 1918
Photographic print
Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone pose on a waterwheel at old Evans Mill near Lead Mine, West Virginia. The photograph was taken in August 1918. The group called themselves Vagabonds and made a series of trips between 1916 and 1924. On these trips they communed with nature, explored their personal interests and acted like boys again.
Test Tube, "Edison's Last Breath," 1931
Test tube
This test tube was one of several that Charles Edison noticed standing open in a rack in the bedroom in which his father had just died in 1931. The attending physician was asked to seal the tubes, one of which Charles later sent on to Henry Ford who kept it with other Edison mementos at his home, Fair Lane.
Menlo Park Glass House
Building (Structure)
Originally built as a photographic studio and drafting room, the glassblowing shop was fundamental to Edison's enterprise. Edison's incandescent lighting experiments ensured that the laboratory had a voracious appetite for glass -- not only for bulbs but also for associated apparatus such as vacuum pumps. Ludwig Boehm, the laboratory's first master glassblower, worked here -- and lodged in the attic space.
Edison Paper Horseshoe Filament Lamp, 1879
Incandescent lamp (Lighting device component)
Edison achieved success with his electric lamp experiments in October 1879. The lamps that he and his colleagues then began to build were but the first stage in a process of continued experiment and refinement as they sought more durable materials, better production methods, and more convenient features. This lamp is the earliest type produced in quantity at Menlo Park.
Sarah Jordan Boarding House
Boardinghouse
The Menlo Park complex was an all-male environment; the closest workaday involvement of women -- not forgetting that Edison and several of his personnel were married -- was at the Sarah Jordan boardinghouse. Offering room and board for unmarried employees at the complex, it was operated by Sarah Jordan, a distant relative of Edison's. The house also played host to the experimental lighting system installed throughout Menlo Park in December...
Portrait of Thomas Edison, circa 1885
Photographic print
This portrait was made during a turbulent time in Thomas Edison's life. Edison, who had lost his first wife in August 1884, would purchase a new home and remarry by March 1886. Amid this personal turmoil, the famed inventor and his assistants in Menlo Park, New Jersey, continued to churn out inventions. Edison was issued 56 patents between 1884 and 1886.
Thomas Edison and Employees in Menlo Park Laboratory, Edison, New Jersey, February 22, 1880
Photographic print
The names of "star" designers might lodge in our minds, just as the names of innovators like Thomas Edison do. But while the essential vision for a design might arise from an individual, it is typically collaboration that drives design ideas through to results. At the Menlo Park laboratory many experimenters undertook the research that made Edison's vision a reality.
Henry Ford and Thomas Edison with Pine Blocks, 1923
Photographic print
Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford owned vacation homes in Fort Myers, Florida. This photograph shows the good friends and neighbors near their winter retreats during 1931, the last year of Edison's life.
Thomas Edison with Ford Model T, 1928
Photographic print
Thomas Edison posed with a Ford Model T for this photo taken in 1928. Edison and his wife, Mina, were close friends with Henry and Clara Ford. The Edisons and Fords had neighboring estates in Fort Myers, Florida. The couples often wintered together in their homes there on the Caloosahatchee River.
Thomas Edison Chopping Wood on a "Vagabonds" Camping Trip, 1921
Photographic print
Between 1916 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs embarked on a series of camping trips. They called themselves the Vagabonds. These Vagabonds enjoyed camping, hiking, sightseeing and just being outdoors. This photo show Thomas Edison chopping firewood -- one of the campsite activities in which members of the group participated.
Portrait of Thomas Edison, circa 1889
Photographic print
This portrait was made during a prolific time for famed inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison. Amid constant work in his newly completed West Orange, New Jersey, laboratory, Edison incorporated the Edison General Electric company (April 24, 1889) and projected the first experimental motion picture (October 6, 1889).
Thomas Edison at the Edison Ore-Milling Company Office, Ogdensburg, New Jersey, 1895
Photographic print
During the 1890s, Thomas Edison launched a New Jersey mining operation to address an iron ore shortage. He designed rock-crushing technology and an electromagnetic ore separator to extract low-grade ore from crushed boulders. The final product -- a briquette made of powdered iron ore -- didn't do well commercially, especially after high-grade ore was discovered around Lake Superior. In 1899, Edison left the industry.
Universal Stock Ticker, 1872
Stock ticker
Thomas Edison's reputation was initially established through his work in telegraphy, particularly on stock tickers -- telegraphs that printed real-time financial information. While he did not invent the stock ticker, his improvements -- particularly those related to synchronizing multiple units -- were a great commercial success. Edison's experience with telegraphy infrastructure, and his approach to continually refining his designs, was...
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