The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

[This note covers all of the "Thomas A. Edison Family Correspondence" folders in Series I.]

These letters cover the years 1887-1947, although most of the documents date from 1914-1947. Most of the correspondence is from members of the Edison family to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford and to Ernest G. Liebold and Frank Campsall, Ford's private secretaries. Also included are letters addressed to Francis Jehl, Edison's former employee, who oversaw the recreation of the Menlo Park laboratory at Ford's Greenfield Village. The letters deal mainly with the domestic life of the Edison and Ford families. They contain many references to Edison's and Ford's health; their camping trips with naturalist John Burroughs and industrialist Harvey S. Firestone; Mina Miller Edison's charitable donations; and Henry Ford's gifts to the Edison family. There are also letters concerning Thomas A. Edison, Jr.'s "ecometer" invention; the Thomas A. Edison Scholarship; and the Light's Golden Jubilee. Also included is correspondence between Jehl and the family of Alice Stilwell Holzer, sister of Edison's first wife Mary, regarding old family photographs. Jehl wished to use the photographs in his Menlo Park Reminiscences, which was published in 1937 by the Edison Institute at Dearborn, Michigan.