Menlo Park Laboratory Complex during the Greenfield Village Restoration Project, April 2003
THF10722 / Menlo Park Laboratory Complex during the Greenfield Village Restoration Project, April 2003
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Artifact Overview
By 2000, Greenfield Village began showing its age. Buildings and crumbling infrastructure desperately needed repair. Museum planners envisioned a revitalized village. They created themed "Historic Districts" by relocating and refurbishing the historic structures. Workers repaved streets and upgraded water, sewer, electric, and gas lines. In June 2003, nine months after restoration began, visitors passed through a new entrance into a reborn Greenfield Village.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Digital photograph
Date Made
April 2003
Subject Date
April 2003
Collection Title
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
EI.1929.6445
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Color
Multicolored
Dimensions
Height: undefined in
Width: undefined in
Keywords |
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Related Artifacts
ArtifactMenlo 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.
ArtifactMenlo Park Glass House
Originally built as a photographic studio and drafting room, the glassblowing shop was fundamental to Edison's enterprise. Edison's incandescent lighting experiments ensured that the laboratory had a voracious appetite for glass -- not only for bulbs but also for associated apparatus such as vacuum pumps. Ludwig Boehm, the laboratory's first master glassblower, worked here -- and lodged in the attic space.
ArtifactMenlo Park Machine Shop
The presence of a machine shop (and of foreman / head machinist John Kruesi) was fundamental to the success of Menlo Park. This well-equipped facility -- built to replace the small machine shop originally installed in the laboratory -- enabled Edison and his associates to not only rapidly prototype iterations of experimental devices but also facilitate their eventual, profitable manufacture.
ArtifactMenlo Park Library
This building was built in late 1878 as Edison's work on electric lighting expanded. The first floor provided office space for accounting, bookkeeping, and patent applications; upstairs was a superbly stocked technical library. The building also played another key role: as a reception area for journalists and other visitors it provided a disarming first impression of Edison's success and ambition.