Unless otherwise credited, all images are courtesy of National Park Service, Thomas Edison National Historical Park.
1Edison in his laboratory library, under Aurelio Bordiga’s Genius of Electricity, 1911. Library of Congress.
2Edison collecting botanical specimens, circa 1927.
3Charles Edison, circa 1920.
4Aerial photograph of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., 1920s.
5Edison listening to phonograph records at home, 1920s.
6Edison napping in front of Harvey Firestone and President Harding at Vagabond camp, 23 July 1921.
7Thomas and Mina Edison on his seventy-fifth birthday, 11 February 1922.
8Theodore Edison, 1924.
9Edison letter regarding invention of phonograph, 1927.
10Henry Ford, Edison, and Harvey Firestone in Florida, circa 1928.
11Edison botanical sketch, 1920s.
12Thomas Edison brooding in the chem lab.
13Menlo Park reconstructed at Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan, 1929.
14Edison and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels aboard USS New York, 1915.
15Edison film studio in the Bronx, circa 1910.
16Madeleine Edison, circa 1911.
17Edison asleep in his laboratory, 1911. Photograph by Miller R. Hutchison.
18Edison receiving Morse signals from Hutchison, circa 1912.
19Edison and the Insomnia Squad at midnight “lunch,” fall 1912.
20Diamond Disc retail advertisement, 1913.
21Edison A-100 “Moderne” Diamond Disc phonograph, 1915.
22The great fire of 9 December 1914.
23Commodore Edison and the crew of USS Sachem, 1917.
24Commodore Edison at Key West Naval Station, 1918.
25Edison in his chemistry laboratory, 1902. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
26Edison’s chair and lamp in the sitting room at Glenmont, circa 1900s.
27Thomas Alva Edison, Jr., circa 1900.
28Illustration from Edison’s cadmium-copper storage battery patent application, 15 October 1900.
29Edison’s trademark signature, 1902.
30Edison at Seminole Lodge, early 1900s.
31Edison and model cement house, circa 1906.
32Edison’s A-12 storage battery, 1909.
33Edison’s A-12 storage battery, 1909.
34Edison at his Ogden mine, 1895.
35Marion Edison as a teenager.
36Edison’s sketch of his tabletop Kinetograph, 28 May 1891.
37The Black Maria, circa 1893.
38Eugene Sandow models for W. K. Dickson’s camera, March 1894.
39The Ogden mine workforce, circa 1895.
40Edison sketched by William Dodge Stevens, Ogden, 1897.
41William Edison, circa 1898.
42The Ogden mill under snow, late 1890s.
43Thomas Edison refracted. Courtesy of Edmund Morris.
44Edison’s house in Menlo Park, January 1880.
45Members of the Menlo Park laboratory team, 1880.
46The Edison electric train, Charles Batchelor driving.
47Stages of splitting and shearing a splint of madake bamboo into filaments ready for carbonization.
48Menlo Park in the winter of 1880–81. Painting by Richard F. Outcault.
49Shell winding for Edison’s large magneto dynamo, 1879.
50Edison’s “Jumbo” dynamo at the Paris Electrical Exposition, 1881.
51Power monitor panel, Edison Pearl Street station, 1882.
52Mary Edison and feathered friends, 1883.
53A page of Edison’s diary, summer 1885.
54Mina Miller, at about the time Edison first met her.
55Glenmont in Llewellyn Park, soon after Edison’s purchase of it.
56Edison’s Magritte-like sketch of Mina as an airborne clock.
57Notebook pages, 1886.
58Edison’s plan for his Fort Myers estate, spring 1886.
59Edison’s new laboratory in West Orange. Phonograph Works in background. Original source unknown.
60Edison’s first Kinetoscope caveat, 8 October 1888.
61Edison with his microphotographic camera. Photograph by W. K. Dickson, 1888.
62Edison with his phonograph in Washington, April 1878. Original source unknown.
63Mary Stilwell Edison, circa 1871.
64Edison chemical printer spelling out the word “BOSTON,” January 1872.
65Edison & Murray workforce, Ward Street, Newark, 1873.
66A freehand sketch by Edison of his quadruplex system.
67The Edison Electric Pen with batteries and press, 1875.
68Edison sketch instruments, 1876.
69Edison sketch voices, 1876.
70Edison’s embossing recorder-repeater, February 1877.
71Edison’s sketch of his first phonograph, circa November 1877.
72Edison’s letter of thanks to The Daily Graphic, 16 May 1878. Thomas A. Edison Papers, Rutgers University.
73The total eclipse seen from Creston, Wyoming, 29 July 1878. Astronomical drawing by E. L Trouvelot. Original source unknown.
74Charles Batchelor in the Menlo Park laboratory. The first photograph ever taken by incandescent light, 22 December 1879.
75Edison’s “New Year’s Eve Lamp,” 1879. Division of Work and Industry, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
76Edison as a young telegrapher, circa 1863.
77Al Edison, newsboy, circa 1860.
78The Detroit Free Press reports the Battle of Shiloh, 10 April 1862. Original source unknown.
79Gold price postings annotated by future president James A. Garfield. Black Friday, 1869. Original source unknown.
80Alva Edison as a child, circa 1850.
81Edison’s birthplace in Milan, Ohio. Original source unknown.
82“Milan from near the Sandusky City Road,” by J. Brainerd, 1847. Original source unknown.
83Nancy Elliott Edison, circa 1854.
84Locomotive, from Richard Green Parker’s Natural Philosophy.
85Sam Edison tilling his field at Fort Gratiot, date unknown.