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The twenty-three scrapbooks in this series cover the years 1911-1919. They contain clippings from newspapers, popular magazines, and technical journals, along with other printed matter and occasional manuscripts. The two scrapbooks from 1911-1912 consist of a collection of articles from Scientific American and a volume pertaining to the Edison family's trip to Europe during the summer of 1911. Four scrapbooks from 1913 cover the introduction of the kinetophone (talking motion pictures) in the United States and Asia. Five additional books from 1913-1915 are topically organized and include articles about the Edison family's vacation in 1913 and Thomas Edison's subsequent illness and recovery; interviews with Edison (1913-1914); daughter Madeleine's social activities, engagement, and wedding (1913-1914); and the fire of December 9, 1914, that destroyed or damaged more than half of the buildings in the West Orange laboratory complex.
There are six general scrapbooks covering the periods August 1913-February 1914 and July 1915-December 1916. Many of the articles in these books relate to Edison's role as president of the Naval Consulting Board, other military and wartime topics, and the Edison family's trip to California in the fall of 1915 to attend the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The remaining six scrapbooks, most of which are not directly related to Edison, cover the years 1917-1919 and pertain primarily to the wartime Liberty Loan and Victory Loan campaigns. Printed news material of a similar type can be found in the Unbound Clippings Series.
Sixteen scrapbooks have been selected in whole or in part. Seven scrapbooks have not been selected either because they duplicate the material in the selected volumes or because they are not directly related to Edison. In addition to the items discussed in this note, the Scrapbooks record group in the Edison National Historical Park archives contains numerous books of souvenirs, postcards, and holiday greetings collected by Mina Miller Edison and others; photograph albums; and other nontechnical scrapbooks. A finding aid is available.
This scrapbook contains clippings from January-March 1913, with a few from December 1912 in the back. All of the items relate to early demonstrations and public exhibitions of Edison's kinetophone in New York and other major North American cities. Identical material can be found in Scrapbook, Cat. 44,489. Approximately 100 pages have been used.
This scrapbook contains clippings from October 1915 relating to Edison's use of a transcontinental telephone at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. All of the items are duplicated in Scrapbooks, Cat. 44,453 and Cat. 44,454. Only eight pages have been used.
This scrapbook contains clippings from January 1918 relating to World War I. None of the items pertain directly to Edison, and only a few pages have been used.
These four scrapbooks cover the period May 1917-November 1919. They contain newspaper clippings, printed circulars and pamphlets, photographs, telegrams and correspondence, and interoffice communications relating primarily to the roles of Charles Edison and Nelson C. Durand in the sale of government bonds to Edison employees and other residents in the West Orange area during four wartime Liberty Loan campaigns and a postwar Victory Loan campaign. Included are lists of divisions, employees, and quotas; patriotic slogans submitted by local children; clippings about area residents in the armed forces and local war relief efforts; discussion of promotional strategies; and accounts of rallies, parades, and other public relations efforts.