The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

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This is a photocopy of a guest book used by Madeleine Edison Sloane beginning on October 10, 1914. The signatures on the first page are those of Thomas, Mina, Charles, and Theodore Edison. Others who signed in October include Madeleine's friends Elmina Ambrose, Marie Cozzens, Elsa Denison, Carol Douglass, Anna Foster, Margaret Gregory, Bessie Kunz, Julia Thompson, Florence Walton, and various members of the Miller, Eyre, and Sloane families. The photocopies have been numbered GB-1 through GB-23. Page GB-14 contains the signatures of King Prajadhipok and Queen Rambai Barni of Siam and other members of the royal family, who probably visited the Sloanes in July 1931. The last signature is on page GB-15. It is by Sgt. Gordon A. Weakley of the 7th Armored Division and bears the date of June 10, 1945.

The remaining pages of the guest book contain news clippings, photographs, and other items that were pasted or paper-clipped into the book. Included are clippings relating to a January 1928 reception for French composer Maurice Ravel hosted by Madeleine and Mina, the Siamese royal family's visit to Glenmont in July 1931, and an August 1932 fishing trip on the Rapidan River in Virginia in which Madeleine and Mina were guests of President Herbert Hoover. There are also telegrams from Henry Ford to Thomas, John, and Peter Sloane on the occasion of their grandfather's birthday in 1932 and 1933 and a pencil sketch of Madeleine made in July 1950, possibly by artist Dante Graziotti (1919-2008). The edges of some of the pages were cut off during photocopying, and the photographs are barely legible.

Following the guest book are photocopies, labeled "a" through "n," of correspondence, news clippings, and other loose items found inside the book. Included is a September 1911 letter from British scientist, banker, and politician John Lubbock (Baron Avebury), inviting Edison and his family to visit his London home, High Elms, during their tour of Europe. Also included is a 1913 letter from James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore in response to John Sloane's letter protesting the discourteous manner in which Madeleine was treated by Msgr. Thomas F. Kennedy, rector of the North American College at Rome. Related correspondence can be found in the Madeleine Edison and John Eyre Sloane Correspondence (1913) and in the Madalee Sloane Collection.

Other loose items include a 1914 letter from M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, inviting Madeleine to serve as chair of the local May Day Committee; a February 1930 letter from musician Ernest Schelling enclosing the anticommunist publication Anti-Bolshevik Vade-Mecum; and correspondence with tea magnate and yachting enthusiast Sir Thomas Lipton, exchanged during the Sloane family's vacation at Long Island Sound in August 1930. In addition, there are business cards from nurse and humanitarian Clara Barton (1899), philanthropist Helen Miller Gould (1899), British scientist Lord Kelvin (1902), and poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox; an autographed photograph of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh; and a printed invitation from President and Mrs. Hoover to a reception at the White House (1932).