The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

These documents consist of letters, postcards, and telegrams from Mina Miller Edison to her son Theodore and daughter-in-law Ann. Most of the communications are addressed to Theodore and Ann jointly, but a few are addressed to Theodore by himself. Twelve of the twenty items were written from Seminole Lodge, the family's winter home in Fort Myers, Florida, where Thomas and Mina resided from December 5, 1929, until June 11, 1930—their longest stay ever in Florida. The other eight letters, dating from the period August 5-September 15, were written by Mina while Theodore and Ann were vacationing at Monhegan Island, Maine. Most were written from Glenmont, but also included is one letter begun by Mina at Chautauqua on August 14 and continued from West Orange on August 15.

Thomas Edison turned eighty-three in February 1930—the last full year of his life. The absence of remarks to the contrary suggest that he was in good health during his stay in Florida. However, the New Jersey summer heat took its toll on the aging inventor, and Mina initially canceled her planned August visit to Chautauqua "because father dear was so miserable and I well shot." However, the "pressure was too great," so she headed off for Chautauqua on August 11. The "pressure" to which Mina refers was most likely a desire on the part of her friends that she attend the graduation ceremonies for the 1930 class of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle—an event for which Mina had been preparing for several years. Her visit was cut short when she learned that Thomas had fallen at Glenmont after waking up in the middle of the night, sustaining a cut on his head and a bruise on his side. Writing on August 17, two days after her return to New Jersey, Mina remarks that family doctor John H. Bradshaw was afraid to give stitches "on account of father's tendency to Erysipelas," so he "fastened the edges together with adhesive plastic." In the same letter, she notes that her husband "is healing nicely and there are no ill effects" while acknowledging that "all were anxious for a while." (A day earlier, the Edison family had issued a statement to the press, denying reports that the inventor was ill.)

Mina's letters also contain comments about the health of other family members, including her sons Theodore, who was suffering from a foot problem that was slow to heal, and Charles, who had a nervous breakdown in December 1929 and spent a month in a New York City hospital in January and then another month recuperating in Arizona. There are also numerous expressions of concern on Mina's part that Theodore is working too hard and might soon suffer the same fate as his older brother. "I plead with you not to go too far as it is so easy to overdo," she writes in March, "and so terribly difficult to regain lost nerves and energy. I wish that I could impress this upon you and get you to stop before you break." Mina also remarks on the health of her sister Grace Miller Hitchcock, who was suffering from "a case of nervous exhaustion"; her grandson Thomas Edison (Teddy) Sloane, who sustained a sunburn while vacationing with his family at Fisher's Island in Long Island Sound; her longtime friend and companion Lucy Bogue, who "seems very tired" and was planning to see her female doctor for a "going over"; longtime chauffeur Sidney Scarth, whose carbuncle problem made it difficult for him to drive; six-year-old Sidney, Jr., who was "very ill with heart & asthma trouble"; and Mina's Llewellyn Park neighbor Friedrike Schenck Merck, who was suffering from some unnamed ailment.

There are other remarks in the letters about various relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the Edison family, including several who spent time at Seminole Lodge during the winter and spring of 1930—Mina's sister and brother-in-law, Grace and Halbert Hitchcock; Thomas's cousin, Edith Edison Potter; and Mina's niece, Margaret Miller Newman. Included are comments a