Oral Histories.
National Phonograph Company Records. The Johnson-Ericke interview is
credited jointly, because some instances the manuscript does not
indicate which subject answered the question.
Newspapers and Magazines
By the time Edison erected his West Orange laboratory 1887, was a
nationally known personality, with news his activities and opinions reported
regularly the national and local presses. This series letters and from the
Historical Research Department, which oversaw the care and
preservation the laboratory the 1930s and 1940s. Sources used this report include the
New York Times and the New York Sun. An
exception the newspaper coverage Edison’s birthday celebration 1889, at
which time his employees refurnished the library honor his birthday. Theodore Edison and nearly two dozen former
Edison employees were interviewed the early 1970s for Columbia
University’s Oral History Research Office. From the time moved his operations
to West Orange until his death 1931, Edison’s organization was described
repeatedly newspaper and magazine articles. The interviews provide some valuable details, but are
used with caution this report because possible inaccuracies in
some the subjects’ recollections. The records this
important Edison company have been grouped together. After the Edison laboratory was
reorganized and the engineering department formed, this
organization kept some its own documents. The tapes have been
transcribed. The
8
.
Engineering Department Files. is
arranged alphabetically. They contain
correspondence and interoffice memos, and other corporate records.
Ediphone Division Records. This collection contains assorted
clippings, manuscripts, obituaries, and printed matter and about
various Edison friends, employees, and contemporaries.
Records Historical Research Department,
Thomas Edison, Inc. They refer the
operations the department. Aside from reports written
around the opening the laboratory the late 1880s, however, descriptions of
the laboratory buildings general are usually incidental larger story. one the few divisions which
maintained operations the 1930s and 1940s, the records this
organization are important source information.
Biographical Collection