Thomas Edison and modern America : a brief history with documents / Theresa M. Collins and Lisa Gitelman with Gregory Jankunis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Collins, Theresa M. (Theresa Mary), 1955-

Contributor:

Gitelman, Lisa.

Jankunis, Gregory

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Series:

Bedford series in history and culture

The Bedford series in history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931.

Edison, Thomas A.

Edison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva), 1847-1931--In mass media.

Inventors--United States--Biography.

Inventors.

Inventions.

History.

United States.

Inventions--United States--History--Sources.

Genre:

Biographies.

Sources.

Physical Description:

xiv, 205 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.

Summary:

Thomas A. Edison remains rooted in the popular imagination primarily as the inventor of the practical electric light, but he also continues to function in the lexicons of advertising and politics as a symbol of American individualism, ingenuity, and know-how. Introduced here with a broad range of primary sources for discussion, the American inventor emerges as a prolific mind, a tireless worker, and an inveterate self-promoter. Examples of Edison' s own experimental notes, his personal correspondence, as well as press accounts provide an opportunity to explore the themes of modernization and the American ideology of progress. The volume includes an extended introduction, headnotes to the documents, illustrations, a chronology, discussion questions, a bibliography, and an index.

Contents:

Introduction: Edison, Invention, and Modernity

Changing Times

Thomas Alva Edison

Not Just an Idea

Contexts for Technological Change

A Note about the Text

Chapter 1 An American Character

Edison's Early Years as He Remembered Them, 1908-1909

Satirical Remarks from Edison's Only Diary, 1885

Edison as Suitor, 1885

The Site of Invention: Edison's Letter to James Hood Wright, 1887

A "Private Idea Book," 1888

Theodore Dreiser Interviews Edison for Success Magazine, 1898

"The Tomorrows of Electricity and Invention" / Thomas A. Edison Edison, Thomas A., 1910

Chapter 2 The Fantastic Phonograph

Invention of the Phonograph as Recalled by Edison's Assistant / Charles Batchelor Batchelor, Charles, ca. 1906 ca., 1906

The Phonograph Causes a Stir, March-June, 1878

New York Times, March 25, 1878

New York Times, April 20, 1878

North American Review, June 1878

New York Clipper, March 16, 1878

Popular Science Monthly, April 1878

New York Daily Graphic, May 9, 1878

Weekly (New Jersey) Freedonian, June 18, 1878

Chapter 3 Electric Light and Power

Edison's Sparks of Interest noted in the New York Sun

New York Sun, September 10, 1878

New York Sun, September 16, 1878

Money Matters, Original Correspondence, (October-December 1878)

Edison to Theodore Puskas, October 5, 1878

Telegram from George Gouraud to Edison, October 7, 1878

Edison Reply to George Gouraud, October 8, 1878

J. P. Morgan to Walter Burns, October 30, 1878

Stockton Griffin to Grosvenor Lowrey, November 1, 1878

Grosvenor Lowrey to Edison, December 10, 1878

Experimental Notes, January 1879

Francis Upton, Letters Home, November 1878-April 1879

Experimental Notes, October 1879

Francis Upton, Letters Home, October-November 1879

Experimental Notes, December 1879-January 1880

Francis Upton, Letters Home, December 1879-January 1880

New York Herald, December 21,1879

A Fan Letter, February 1880

Boehm v. Edison: Two Versions of Invention at Menlo Park, August-October 1881

Draft Report for Investors, September 1881

Notice from the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting, November 1885

Chapter 4 Modern Living

Phonographs and the Function of Recorded Sound in Transition

Talking Dolls: News Items and Anecdotes, (1890-1892)

Scientific American, April 26, 1890

Philadelphia Times, January 2, 1891

New York Morning Advertiser, March 14, 1892

Nickel-in-the-Slot Phonographs: News Items, Promotion and Anecdotes, (1890-1892)

New York Journal, November 9, 1890

Phonogram, Published by the North American Phonograph Company, 1891

St. Louis Chronicle, February 14, 1891

The Phonograph at Home: National Phonograph Company Advertisements and Notices, 1905-1908

Electrocution: Original Correspondence and News Items, 1887-88, 1905

A. P. Southwick to Edison, November 8, 1887

A. P. Southwick to Edison, December 5, 1887

Edison to A. P. Southwick, December 19, 1887

New York Herald, November 1888

New York American, February 10, 1905

X-Rays: Original Correspondence and News Items, 1896-97, 1904

Telegram from Edison to A. E. Kennelly, January 27, 1896

Jerome Carty to Edison, February 12, 1896

W. B. Hill to Edison, February 17, 1896

New York World, August 15, 1897

Schenectady Union, October 5, 1904

Storage Batteries: Press Notices and a Letter, 1899, 1902, 1912

New York Dry Goods Economist, September 16, 1899

North American Review, July 1902

Edison to Irving Bloomingdale, April 16, 1912

Concrete Houses: News Items and Original Correspondence, 1901, 1907-1909

Insurance Engineering, Interview with Edison, June 1901

New York Herald, November 9, 1907

Henry Phipps to Edison, November 13, 1907

Edison to Henry Phipps, November 15, 1907

Henry Phipps to Edison, November 22, 1907

Grand Rapids (Michigan) Evening Press, July 9, 1909

Motion Pictures

From History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kineto-phonograph, 1895

Program for Projected Films (n.d.)

Media and Politics

Films Advertised to the Trade, 1901-1902

McKinley's Last Appearance

Ten Edison Records by William Jennings Bryan, 1908

Ten Edison Records by William Howard Taft, 1908

Mass Media and Their Markets

Edison's Policy for Making Records and Related Correspondence, 1912, 1914-15

Policy Statement, May 11, 1912

Edison to Santa Fe Watch Company, November 11, 1914

Edison to Harger & Blish, February 8, 1915

Edison to F.R. Humphries, June 28, 1915

Five Edison Films of the Progressive Era, 1912.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 192-194) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

031229476X

0312247346

OCLC:

249368680