The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

This folder contains correspondence, reports, and other documents concerning the manufacture and promotion of Edison's talking doll. Many of the documents pertain to the organization and management of the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co., including a 20-page list of company stockholders and letters requesting dolls or asking for information about them. Among the correspondents are William W. Jacques, president of the Toy Manufacturing Co., and Benjamin F. Stevens, a company director. There are also numerous letters by Edison's friend, A. B. Dick, who was making inquiries about the manufacture of dolls while traveling in Continental Europe.

Approximately 60 percent of the documents have been selected. The following categories of documents have not been selected: letters of transmittal and acknowledgement and other routine business correspondence by the Toy Manufacturing Co.; unsolicited inquiries regarding the talking doll and the talking doll business; duplicate copies of selected documents; documents that duplicate information in selected material.

Also not selected is a set of coded cablegram messages exchanged among Edison, Tate, and Samuel Insull. The messages were subsequently decoded and transcribed by Edison's staff. Photocopies of decoded transcriptions relating to the talking doll can be found in this folder. The original decoded transcriptions can be found in D-89-20 (Edison, T.A. - Secretary - Tate, Alfred O.).