The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

[This folder has not been completely edited. Two documents have recently been added, and these documents do not have images or complete database information. In addition, the information in the folder target (editorial description) may not be up-to-date.]

These documents consist primarily of letters and telegrams from Mina Miller Edison to her youngest son, Theodore. Also included are three letters from Mina to Anna Maria (Ann) Osterhout, whom Theodore met in January 1924 and married on April 1925, along with one letter from Ann to Mina. Some of Mina's letters, particularly for the period after the marriage, are addressed jointly to Theodore and Ann. Several letters contain enclosed newspaper clippings relating to the engagement and upcoming wedding. A letter from Clara Ford, wife of automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, is enclosed with one of Mina's letters.

Most of the correspondence dates from March-April 1925 when the Edisons were vacationing at Seminole Lodge, their winter home in Fort Myers, Florida. The letters contain references to activities in Florida, including fishing, swimming, bird watching, and visits to nearby locations such as Bonita Springs, Bradentown, the Everglades, Immokalee, Mountain Lakes, Sarasota, and Tampa. One letter mentions an invitation to visit from Henry D. Silverfriend of The Koreshan Unity, a communal utopia in Estero, Florida. Other topics discussed in the correspondence include Mina's concern about over development in Fort Myers, particularly the growing number of noisy automobiles; her role in the management of the Fort Myers estate; and her frustration about the shortage of carpenters and other skilled workmen ("all are land crazy letting every thing else go by the board," she complains in one letter).

The letters reveal that Ann Osterhout accompanied her fiancé to Seminole Lodge and remained with the Edison family until the end of February—a visit that is not mentioned in the extant newspapers or in Theodore's correspondence. The visit apparently did not go well, since the tone of Mina's letters from March is self-deprecating and apologetic in regard to Ann. "I am afraid [Ann] has lost much of her fondness for me," she laments in one letter, while in another she inquires "is Ann disgusted with me entirely?" "I am longing to improve my beastly self," she assures Theodore, "but I guess I am too old to be any different. I just feel that I have lost in favor with every human being that I ever knew. All are estranged from me." After apparently receiving assurances from Theodore that her future daughter-in-law was not upset with her, she expresses gratitude that "Ann does feel all right towards me."

Most of the letters from Fort Myers contain questions and suggestions regarding preparations for the upcoming wedding, including invitations to the ceremony and reception, ushers, hotel reservations, and plans to travel to Boston after the return from Florida. Mina's frustration at being cut out of the planning for the wedding is evident in the correspondence. In one letter she comments about how she "would love to be North . . . Helping with the things to get over for the wedding." In another she remarks that "it is extremely hard for me to be contented away from [the] seat of action. . . . But you did not want me and father does as it seems, and so here I am."

The nine letters written after the wedding date from June 29-August 24, 1925. During most of that period Theodore and Ann were on their honeymoon, and Mina's letters are addressed to their cruise ship, the SS Franconia,, and to the Copenhagen, London, and Paris offices of their travel agent, Raymond & Whitcomb. In separate letters to Ann and Theodore, dated June 29 but in envelopes inscribed "not to be opened until the 10th of July" (Theodore's birthday), Mina apologizes to Ann for a recent misunderstanding, admits that "I have many, many faults," and asks her to "tr