Edison Papers Digital Book Edition

FAIN: RQ-271199-20

Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8559)
Paul B. Israel (Project Director: December 2019 to present)

Preparation for publication of volumes 10, 11, and 12 of the selected papers of inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931), covering the years 1890-1905. (24 months)

This application will fund work on Always Something New: Volume 10 (January 1890 to June 1892). During the grant period we expect to complete the manuscript of this volume. During the period of this grant we also will be transforming our book edition from print to digital formats, exploring ways to make it more accessible to a non-scholarly public while maintaining the high standards of our scholarly edition, and looking at new ways to link together our digital book and image editions.

Associated Products

The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: Competing Interests, January 1888–December 1889 (Book)
Title: The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: Competing Interests, January 1888–December 1889
Editor: Paul B. Israel
Editor: Louis Carlat
Editor: Theresa M. Collins
Editor: Alexandra Rimer
Editor: Daniel J. Weeks
Abstract: This richly illustrated volume explores Edison's inventive and personal pursuits from 1888 to 1889, documenting his responses to technological, organizational, and economic challenges.Thomas A. Edison was received at the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle—the World's Fair—as a conquering hero. Extravagantly fêted and besieged by well-wishers, he was seen, like Gustave Eiffel's iron tower, as a triumphal symbol of republicanism and material progress. The visit was a high-water mark of his international fame.Out of the limelight, Edison worked as hard as ever. On top of his work as an inventor, entrepreneur, and manufacturer, he created a new role as a director of research. At his peerless laboratory in Orange, New Jersey, he directed assistants working in parallel on multiple projects. These included the "perfected" phonograph; a major but little-recognized effort to make musical recordings for sale; the start of work on motion pictures; and improvements in the recovery of low-grade iron ore. He also pursued a public "War of the Currents" against electrical rival George Westinghouse. Keenly attuned to manufacturing as a way to support the laboratory financially and control his most iconic products, Edison created a new cluster of factories. He kept his manufacturing rights to the phonograph while selling the underlying patents to an outside investor in a deal he would regret. When market pressures led to the consolidation of Edison lighting interests, he sold his factories to the new Edison General Electric Company. These changes disrupted his longtime personal and professional relations even as he planned an iron-mining project that would take him to the New Jersey wilderness for long periods.The ninth volume of the series, Competing Interests explores Edison's inventive and personal pursuits from 1888 to 1889, documenting his responses to technological, organizational, and economic challenges. The book includes 331 documents and hundreds of Edison's drawings, which
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/84205
Primary URL Description: Project Muse, The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: Competing Interests, January 1888–December 1889.
Secondary URL: https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/papers-thomas-edison-3
Secondary URL Description: Johns Hopkins University Press books, The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: Competing Interests, January 1888–December 1889. Print-on-demand.
Access Model: Open Access
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: ISBN 978-1-421
Copy sent to NEH?: No

The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition
Author: Paul Israel
Author: Ben Bakelaar
Abstract: This digital archive provides powerful search capabilities enabling users to search for over 25,000 individual and organizational names in a database of nearly 150,000 documents. These documents encompass a period of rapid industrialization and growth in the scale of enterprise from the Civil War to the onset of the Great Depression. In addition to Edison’s well-known contributions to the development of electric light and power, sound recording, and motion pictures, they also document his contributions to many other industries; including telecommunications (telegraph and telephone), electric batteries, mining, chemical production, cement manufacture, and office and home appliances. They include records of his pioneering laboratories and of the numerous companies he established at home and abroad. In addition they provide extensive documentation of his family and of his role as a symbol of American ingenuity. Most of the documents come from the extensive archives of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park and were scanned from our microfilm edition. In addition, there are documents from nearly 150 other repositories and private collections. The edition will eventually include Edison's 1,093 U.S. Patents and over 500 motion picture catalogs produced by American producers and distributors between 1894 and 1908. Our digital edition (also known as a digital archive or digital library) is composed of documents and item sets. "Documents" is a generic term that can also describe things like notebooks, scrapbooks, account books, and other bound volumes.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/
Primary URL Description: Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Image Edition on Omeka-S Platform.
Access Model: Open Access

Thomas A. Edison Papers Microfilm Collection (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Thomas A. Edison Papers Microfilm Collection
Author: Paul Israel
Author: Ben Bakelaar
Author: Monica Genuardi
Abstract: Between 1985 and 2008, the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University published a selective microfilm edition of documents from the massive archive of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, NJ (estimated at 5 million pages). The 288 reels of the microfilm cover the period 1850–1919 and contain approximately 139,000 individually indexed items. The index can be searched through our digital image edition, which also lists an additional 15,600 documents from other repositories.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://archive.org/details/edison-microfilm?tab=about
Primary URL Description: Internet Archive: Thomas A. Edison Papers Microfilm Edition
Access Model: Open Access

Open Access Collection (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Open Access Collection
Title: Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Book Edition
Year: 2021
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Abstract: All nine published volumes of the Papers of Thomas A. Edison are now available as open-access content and downloadable as PDFs and EPUBs on Project Muse.
Primary URL: https://edison.rutgers.edu/research/book-edition
Primary URL Description: This page provides links to each volume of the Papers of Thomas A. Edison on Project Muse.
Secondary URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/
Secondary URL Description: This is the digital platform on which Johns Hopkins University Press has made available as open-access content the Papers of Thomas A. Edison.
Type: Edited Volume

Thomas A. Edison Papers website (Web Resource)
Title: Thomas A. Edison Papers website
Author: Laura Gordon
Author: Paul Israel
Author: Nicole Wines
Author: Ammi Gonzales
Abstract: The revised and updated website of the Thomas A. Edison Papers contains new materials for the general public as well as better access to the project's digital book and image editions.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://edison.rutgers.edu/
Primary URL Description: Revised and updated website of the Thomas A. Edison Papers

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