Menlo Park Compound Construction Site in Greenfield Village, January 1929

THF144858 / Menlo Park Compound Construction Site in Greenfield Village, January 1929

Artifact Overview

In 1928, Henry Ford commissioned a painstaking reconstruction of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory for Greenfield Village. Researchers referenced photographs and reminiscences from Edison's early employees, and crews incorporated salvaged materials and original structures from the laboratory's long-abandoned New Jersey site. Construction was completed by October 1929, when Ford dedicated his museum and village as the Edison Institute of Technology.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Subject Date

28 January 1929

Creators

Ford Motor Company. Archives

Place of Creation

United States, Michigan, Dearborn

Collection Title

Edison Institute Photographs

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

EI.1929.P.O.5792.B.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Gelatin silver process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 8.125 in
Width: 10 in

Inscriptions

Written in red grease pencil in lower right corner front: 36

Keywords	United States, Michigan, Dearborn Photographic prints Photographs Building sites Construction Open-air museums Henry Ford (Organization). Greenfield Village Menlo Park Laboratory Complex (Dearborn, Mich.) Menlo Park Laboratory (Dearborn, Mich.)

Related Artifacts

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Menlo Park Laboratory
When Edison moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey, in spring of 1876 the laboratory building contained his entire operation -- a handful of collaborators, office, library, and machine shop as well as laboratory. As the scale of Edison's investigations grew so did the complex, but this building -- dedicated to experimental activities -- was always understood to be the heart of the enterprise.