With another ceremony year later,
the library and the laboratory were opened the public.
553 Historical Research Department C. Eckert Fred Kelly, June 11, 1945, Historical Research Dept.S.554
164
. Edison did much his work., February 16, 1939, and Historical Department
Progress Report, February 11, 1936, Historical Research Dept. Charles then locked and sealed the desk. donated the laboratory the federal government 1955, the Historical
Research Department staff was retained; department staff became National Park
Service curators and archivists. John Coakley, former Thomas Edison public
relations executive, explained tour the library given after Edison’s death
that the day Edison died, his son Charles came into the library and went
through all the papers Edison’s desk, taking those that were needed continue
work progress the laboratory. Williams, Jr.
In February 1947, celebration the one hundredth anniversary his birth,
Edison’s desk was unsealed amid much ceremony, and description the
contents was broadcast across the country."551
551 H.the central laboratory.
552 John Coakley interview, nd, Oral History Project, pp.
Building Library
Great effort was made change the library little possible from the way it
looked the day Edison died.H. After Thomas Edison,
Inc. Its director was Fred Kelly, who jealously protected his
department’s title the "Edison laboratory.553
The cataloging project was underway the 1930s and, before storage vault 12
was completed February 1942, cataloging and storage archival materials was
probably being worked the library itself.552
A 1939 memo from the Historical Research Department (of which Coakley was a
member) states: "An important consideration far the Library concerned is
the fact that little any change has been made the physical layout the room
in which Mr." This concern translated into physical
care the collections the library; the original furnishings were some the first
items the collection cataloged and the department began its mountain of
work cleaning and cataloging the library’s books and organizing unbound
periodicals.
554 National Park Service, "Historical Research Management Plan, Edison National Historic Site, West
Orange-New Jersey,” prepared George Svejda, Office Archeology and Historic Preservation, April 17,
1969, 14. 21-22
