Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor, and Uriah Painter with Edison's Phonograph, April 18, 1878
Add to SetSummary
While in Washington, D.C., for an 1878 presentation to the National Academy of Sciences, inventor Thomas Edison, his lab assistant Charles Batchelor, and Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent Uriah Painter sat for famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. They posed with Edison's phonograph, a new invention that could, for the first time, record and reproduce sound. The machine made Edison an overnight celebrity.
While in Washington, D.C., for an 1878 presentation to the National Academy of Sciences, inventor Thomas Edison, his lab assistant Charles Batchelor, and Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent Uriah Painter sat for famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. They posed with Edison's phonograph, a new invention that could, for the first time, record and reproduce sound. The machine made Edison an overnight celebrity.
Artifact
Photographic print
Subject Date
18 April 1878
Keywords
United States, District of Columbia, Washington
Cylinder phonographs (Phonographs)
Collection Title
On Exhibit
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
84.1.1630.P.188.2901
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Linen (Material)
Technique
Gelatin silver process
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 11 in
Width: 7.5 in
Inscriptions
Handwritten on original photo from which this copy was made, across lower edge: S. Bergmann
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