Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor, and Uriah Painter with Edison's Phonograph, April 18, 1878

THF111744 / Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor, and Uriah Painter with Edison's Phonograph, April 18, 1878
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Artifact Overview

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 Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Subject Date

18 April 1878

Location

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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      Thomas Edison, Charles Batchelor, and Uriah Painter with Edison's Phonograph, April 18, 1878