This folder contains correspondence and other documents concerning Edison's opinion on technical and other forms of education. Included are letters from individuals, particularly young men wishing to become electrical engineers, seeking the inventor's advice on courses of education. Among the documents for 1919 is a letter from future cosmetics executive Gilbert Colgate, Jr., then a student at Yale University, soliciting Edison's opinion on whether a college education was worthwhile. Other correspondents include Edward O. Dean of the New York Evening Post and Elizabeth B. D. Hopps, a sister of former Edison engineer Edward A. Darling.
Less than 10 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected items include requests for advice that received a form-letter reply recommending college, an apprenticeship, or a correspondence school, depending on what the student could afford.
[E1927AA], Letter from West Orange Laboratory to Elizabeth B D Hopps, January 3rd, 1919 1919-01-03