This folder contains correspondence with individuals planning to meet with Edison, arranging for others to meet him, or thanking Edison for a recent visit. Among those visiting Edison's laboratory or home in 1916 were British munitions inspector Harry Anderton; New Jersey Commissioner of Labor Lewis T. Bryant; Nicholas P. Melnikoff, chief engineer to the Emperor of Russia; John H. Patterson, president of the National Cash Register Co.; Rear Admiral Joseph Strauss of the Department of the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance; Republican Party leader William R. Willcox, who managed the 1916 presidential campaign of Charles Evans Hughes; and Hidetsugu Yagi, professor of engineering at Tohoku Imperial University. Also included is correspondence pertaining to a visit by H. K. Raymenton, who presented Edison with a scrapbook, compiled by his father William H. Raymenton, commemorating the inventor's visit to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1884. In addition, there is an interoffice communication from William H. Meadowcroft to Leonard C. McChesney regarding protocol for handling requests for appointments with Edison.
Approximately 20 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items include letters of introduction and thanks; routinely declined requests for meetings, factory tours, and visits by youth or educational groups; and meeting requests that were approved in principle but about which no further documentation exists.
[E1678AA], Letter from U.S. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance, Joseph Strauss to Miller Reese Hutchison, February 4th, 1916 1916-02-04