This folder contains tissue copies of outgoing correspondence similar to the items found in the Letterbook Series. Much of this correspondence was typed by the office staff of the Thomas A. Edison Construction Department. Most of the letters relate to the business activities of the Construction Department, but there are also documents pertaining to Edison's other business interests, including domestic and foreign electric light and telephone companies, along with some responses to Edison's incoming personal correspondence. Much of the correspondence is by Samuel Insull, Edison's private secretary and attorney for Construction Department business. There are also numerous letters by Alfred O. Tate, Insull's assistant.
Approximately 60 percent of the documents have been selected. The following categories of documents have not been selected: personal correspondence by Insull and Tate; routine correspondence regarding orders, shipments, employee accounts, routine financial transactions, and routine stock sales and transfers; routine responses to individuals seeking employment, requesting advice, or offering advice; routine answers to other unsolicited inquiries; letters of transmittal and letters of acknowledgment that do not contain significant information or that simply duplicate information in letters already selected; duplicate copies of selected documents.
Related correspondence can be found in D-83-40 (Electric Light -- Thomas A. Edison Construction Department -- General) and in the Construction Department Letterbooks, LM014 - LM021 (Letterbook Series). Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.