This folder contains requests for Edison's autograph or photograph and letters of acknowledgment from persons who received his autograph or photograph. Among the items for 1912 is a letter from New York philanthropist Mary Robinson Wright, the widow of James Hood Wright, concerning a meeting with Edison and an Italian sculptor named Ximenez. Another letter from composer Luigi Romano, who would later write a "Kinetophone Waltz," encloses reviews of his "Titanic Symphony." Also included is an exchange between Edison and his chief engineer Miller Reese Hutchison in which Edison declines a request to sit for New York photographer Benjamin J. Falk, who wanted to "try out his new color photography." Other correspondents include E. H. Bancroft, son of William L. Bancroft who visited Port Huron, Michigan, with Edison in 1898; sculptor Frank E. Elwell; Irwin W. Howell, a former employee of the British Thomson-Houston Co.; and New Jersey congressman Eugene F. Kinkead.
Less than 5 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items consist primarily of unsolicited correspondence from Edison admirers, autograph collectors, educators, newspapers, and periodicals.
[E1204AA], Letter from E H Bancroft to Harry Frederick Miller, February 26th, 1912 1912-02-26