[F5C-F]

https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/folder/F5C-F

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Part Of: Family Records Series -- Charles Edison Fund Collection -- Mina Edison Papers

[F5C-F] Correspondence (1886-1931)

These folders cover the years 1911-1931, with a few additional items from the period 1886-1910. The documents consist primarily of letters to Mina Miller Edison from her mother Mary Valinda Miller, her brothers Edward Burkett Miller and Lewis Alexander Miller, her nephew Lewis Miller, II, and other family members. There are also some letters written by Mina Edison, along with correspondence from non-family members. Included are items discussing the deaths of Robert Anderson Miller in 1911 and Mary Valinda Miller in 1912, as well as the marriages of Mina's siblings Mary (1912), Grace (1916), Lewis (1916), and John (1921). Also included are letters dealing with Mina's struggle to reconcile herself to her daughter Madeleine's engagement and marriage to John Eyre Sloane. In addition, there are letters relating to the Edison family's trip to Europe in 1911, including references to reporter Edward A. U. Valentine of the New York World, who accompanied them, and to an automobile accident in Germany that resulted in the death of a young boy and the brief detainment of the Edison family.

The following family members appear as authors:

  • Edison, Mina Miller = 26 letters
  • Edison, Theodore Miller = 1 letter [2 additional letters can be found here]
  • Miller, Cora Wise (Mrs. Ira M.) = 3 letters
  • Miller, Cotta Smyser (Mrs. Lewis A.) = 7 letters (6 co-authored with Lewis)
  • Miller, Edward Burkett = 6 letters
  • Miller, Emily Clark Huntington = 6 letters
  • Miller, Ira Mandeville = 9 letters
  • Miller, Lewis Alexander = 33 letters
  • Miller, Lewis, II = 11 letters
  • Miller, Louise Igoe (Mrs. Robert A.) = 4 letters [19 additional letters can be found here]
  • Miller, Marcia Lucinda Bostwick (Mrs. Levi L.) = 4 letters
  • Miller, Mary Emily = 2 letters
  • Miller, Mary Valinda = 18 letters
  • Miller, Robert Anderson, Jr. = 1 letter [3 additional letters can be found here]

Among the non-family members whose letters appear in these folders are longtime Edison associate Richard R. Bowker; Margaret Colgate, wife of industrialist Richard M. Colgate; Kate S. Curtis, wife of publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis; Elizabeth B. Custer, widow of General George A. Custer; and Florence Doubleday, wife of publisher Frank N. Doubleday. Other documents by non-family members include a communication regarding Thomas Edison's visit to the French Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, along with two letters from William J. Hammer regarding money and food vouchers sent by eight Edison Pioneers in 1920 to Francis Jehl in Budapest. Also included are resolutions by the New England Society of Orange and the New Orleans Woman's Club on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the electric light and several letters pertaining to anniversary activities at Chautauqua.

Approximately 50 percent of the letters from 1911-1931 have been selected.

Please note: Some of the letters by Louise Igoe Miller and her son Lewis Miller, II, scanned from the microfilm in the Charles Edison Collection, are now in the possession of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park. These items are so indicated in the document information frame above each image.

Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

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