Tour of Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Thomas Edison National Historical Park Entrance

Introduction

You might remember my nephew Tyler from other adventures we've had -- a Famous Fat Dave's food tour of NYC and a special food tour of our own devising. Tyler's now in the undergraduate engineering program at Rutgers University. With that in mind, I asked him if he would be interested in visiting the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange. "I'm all in!" he replied.

I quickly contacted the Park's archivist, Leonard DeGraaf, who very kindly made space in his schedule to give us a tour and show us some of archive's treasures. The tour was one of the most fun and interesting archives tours I've had -- not only due to DeGraaf's depth of knowledge and generosity, but also because Tyler had a great time learning about Edison and why archives are important to researchers and the public at large (from someone other than his Auntie Deb).

The big surprise came at the end of our tour when we sat down in the archive reading room to see some of the treasures DeGraaf had set aside to show us. Not only did we see some remarkable examples of Edison's documentation, but we learned that DeGraaf was about to publish a book! Since our visit, the book has been published (with a Forward by Bill Gates, no less), and it is called Edison and the Rise of Innovation. DeGraaf very kindly gave me select portions of the book which whet my appetite to read the entire text. The photos are beautiful, and the text is very well written.

About the Archivist

Leonard DeGraaf has just celebrated his 12th year as an archivist at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park's archives. DeGraaf says he became an archivist "because I enjoy working with original documents and making them available to researchers."

In addition to publishing his new book, his current project is arranging Edison's correspondence files for the years 1920-1931. Because the inventor was so connected to his businesses and interested in what the general public had to say about products, I can only imagine the linear footage dedicated to those correspondence files.

As archivists, most of us love what we do. DeGraaf is no exception. "I enjoy the diversity of archival work -- processing documents, writing finding aids, answering reference questions. I also enjoy learning new things. Edison was involved in so many different activities -- there is always something new to learn," he says. But as with any profession, ours comes with inherent challenges, mainly concerning storage space. At the Park, DeGraaf concurs, "lack of proper storage space to protect the collections is our biggest challenge."

When I asked DeGraaf what advice he would give a student or young professional, he replied,

I would advise students and young professionals to look for meaningful volunteer opportunities at cultural institutions and take advantage of free or low-cost training opportunities. Libraries, museums, and archives often offer workshops – a great way to learn new skills and meet other professionals. Anything you can do to enhance your writing and public speaking abilities – two important career skills – will also make you more competitive.

About the Archives and Collections at Thomas Edison National Historical Park

One of the most remarkable things about the Park is that "most of it is left as it was when Edison was here," says DeGraaf. The U.S. Congress designated Thomas Edison’s West Orange laboratory and nearby estate, Glenmont, as Edison National Historic Site in September 1962. In 2009, the lab and Glenmont were re-designated Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

The archive houses 5-6 million pages of material. While the Park has 29 full-time staffers, only two are archivists. The Park's patrons run the gamut from students and academics to all manner of media, park staff, and the general public. As far as the archive goes, most of its patrons contact the archivists by email or telephone. DeGraaf and his colleague respond to 800-1000 reference requests per year.

"Because Edison employed thousands of workers in his factories, we receive many requests from people doing family or genealogical research," DeGraaf clarifies. There are no personnel files, but there are payroll records. However, those records are not yet indexed or digitized (sounds like a volunteer opportunity to me).

Among the unsung heroes of the collection are Edison's business and financial records. Two examples are shown below.

The experimental accounts in particular are valuable because they give a snapshot of the work in the lab on a given experiment. Was is profitable? If not, why not? These are the relevant questions that researchers can answer by looking at the notebooks and account books. DeGraaf says, "We need more research on the operation of Edison's companies to understand why they succeeded or failed."

Another fascinating, but underutilized part of the archive "are the many letters Edison received from the public on a wide variety of topics. These letters offer an opportunity to study social attitudes about technology and invention in the early 20th century," says DeGraaf. 


Eighty of the collections have been processed, and he notes that while finding aids are sent out at request, the Park does need a way for researches to access a guide to the archives. Meanwhile "the Thomas Edison Papers Project at Rutgers University has published material from the Edison archives for the period up to 1919. Of this published material, documents for the period up to 1898 have been digitized and are available at the Edison Papers Project website: http://edison.rutgers.edu/," says DeGraaf.

In terms of use, the Park's collection of 60,000 historic photographs is the most popular. For example, here is one of the man himself that DeGraaf kindly sent me. Edison is sitting at the desk that still resides in library shown in the photo of DeGraaf.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.

While the archival collection is mostly paper-based, the museum collection contains 400,000 objects and 35,000 sound recordings on disc and cylinder formats. When Tyler and I toured the museum, we saw where Edison would audition new musical acts for his recording label.

 

Tyler in Edison's Music Room

  

Edison's Music Room

Edison's Music Room

DeGraaf's favorite items are Edison's laboratory notebooks. He says, "They offer an intimate look at how Edison approached invention and provide details about how he designed the phonograph, electric light, and many other laboratory products."

Edison's communal lab notebook, 1880, Experiment No. 1.

It is especially illuminating to see the shared research and meticulous data collected at the laboratory. It is even more profound to discover the impact all this work had on the world. DeGraaf's new book points out the monumental affect Edison's labs had:

When he was born in 1847, there were no industrial research laboratories, no phonographs, no motion picture cameras, and no electric power systems, let alone practical electric lights. In 1931, the year Edison died, the United States produced 320 lightbulbs and consumed 110.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. Seventy-five million Americans attended the movies each week, spending $719 million ($10.6 billion today) at the box office.

When the National Parks re-open, I encourage you to tour the museum and outlying buildings. Along with self-guided phone tours, some of the park staff give tours. Also visit Edison's home, Glenmont -- it's a short ride away on a large piece of property that should be especially pretty with the leaves changing now.

The archive is not open to the public, so I appreciate DeGraaf letting a fellow archivist and her nephew have an inside peek at the Thomas Edison National Park's archival collections.


Contact Information

Since National Parks are closed at the moment, I recommend emailing so that any inquiry would be waiting when the furloughed workers return.

Leonard DeGraaf
Thomas Edison National Historical Park
211 Main Street
West Orange, NJ 07052
973-736-0550, ext. 22  
Leonard_DeGraaf@nps.gov
http://nps.gov/edis

Tour of Acadia National Park’s Curatorial Center

Introduction
Last autumn, John and I visited one of our favorite places, Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Like many of the National Parks, it has its own archives that are open for research. It boasts remarkable natural and local history collections that I just had to see. Fortunately, I was able to book a tour with Robyn King (see below), and have a wonderful time learning more about the holdings at Acadia.

About the Museum Technician
Usually, this section is reserved for “About the Archivist,” but my gracious and enthusiastic tour host Robyn King (shown below) is a National Park Service Museum Technician.

From Acadia National Park Archives

At the time I visited Acadia, Robyn had just joined the staff about four months prior. Still, she gave me an excellent tour of the facilities and showed me all kinds of interesting specimens and objects. She also promised to learn more about the manuscripts and papers in the collection, so that when I return, she can show me the treasures in those boxes.

Before moving to Maine, Robyn served as a curatorial assistant at the New York State Museum in Albany, and as a site interpreter at the Ulysses S.Grant Cottage in Wilton, New York. She received her double-major, History and Anthropology degree from the State University of New York in Oneonta. She also served two years in the Peace Corps, stationed in Niger.

Robyn wanted to become a curator because she was inspired by one of her teachers. She explains, “In junior high school, my Social Studies teacher told our class that when she worked at the New York State Museum, their storage facility was better than the Museum itself. It sparked my interest in wanting to see behind the scenes at museums and handle artifacts that the general public could not.” I know exactly what she means, although, at the same time, I know we also both derive a great deal of pleasure in making exhibits of these materials and allowing researchers access to these items.

At this writing, Robyn’s on furlough to the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, so you won’t run into her at Acadia if you visit before early April. However, the staff there is very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful.

About the Archive
The archives at Acadia are housed in the William Otis Sawtelle Curatorial Center, the facility built in 1996 to house this National Park’s archival and museum collections. The bulk of the materials originated at the Ilseford Museum, established in 1927 on Little Cranberry Island, Maine.

Two full-time staffers, Robyn and Rebecca Cole-Will, the Cultural Resources Manager, care for the collections and provide research services to the patrons and researchers. Robyn told me that the Acadia’s Curatorial Center has many volunteers in the peak season and immediately afterward. Retired volunteers can stay for up to a month at a time.

The Center’s patrons include park employees, volunteers, students (from high school through graduate school), and researchers around the country. Approximately 10 researchers per week visit the Center. Last summer, the Center hosted two doctoral candidates who worked together on a project entitled “Flora of Acadia and the people who loved them.” They plan to return this summer.

Robyn says, “We have a researcher writing a book on all the ships that have come through Frenchman Bay and its history. We have another researcher who is writing a book using the Naval magazine The Acadian as the main reference; and we have four researchers in Maine and New England who have started their graduate school research, which will last through the semester.

The Center’s collection maintenance is funded through Federal Operating Funds, and complex conservation and preservation efforts are sent to the Northeast Museum Service Center or private conservation firms.

About the Collections
Although a great deal of physical specimens are located at Acadia, the park’s herbarium is housed at the College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor. Robyn and her colleagues also work closely with the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. The National Park has a very active curatorial program. According to the NPS Acadia web site, “More than 1.4 million objects and documents are in the collection from both Acadia National Park and Saint Croix Island International Historic Site.” Saint Croix Island, a small island located on the border between the United States and Canada, in the Bay of Fundy, is one of two International Historical Sites/Parks (the other is Franklin D. Roosevelt Campobello International Park in Canada).

The Center’s holdings date as far back as 1596 (the oldest materials are from Saint Croix Island). The most popular collections are the Sawtelle Collection, Proctor Collection, Cranberry Isles Collection, Carroll Farm Collection, and U.S. Naval Collection from Winter Harbor. In the photo below are some examples of furniture from the Carroll Farm Collection.

From Acadia National Park Archives

The Carrolls lived on their farm between 1825-1917, but then moved to Southwest Harbor to be closer to more people. They still owned the land, but eventually rented it to summer visitors. In 1982, the family transferred ownership of the property to Acadia National Park. The Carrolls left quite a lot of evidence of their life behind, including books, correspondence from Ireland, and the contents of their “mountain home.”

Acadia’s collections also include many maps and architectural drawings. Below is a drawing of one of the original park signs followed by a photo of Robyn holding one of the early signs.

From Acadia National Park Archives

From Acadia National Park Archives

There are more than 15,000 cataloged biological specimens on site, including birds, insects, mammals, and fish. Below is a photo of three owls in the collection.

From Acadia National Park Archives

Two collections that have attracted quite a few researchers over the years are the William H. Proctor invertebrate and the Harold White dragonfly/damselfly collections. According to the Acadia web site, “from 1928 to 1944, William H. Procter studied the invertebrates in the park.” Below are some of the samples he collected.

From Acadia National Park Archives

Acadia holds annual BioBlitz events to attract researchers and volunteers who will collect an assigned invertebrate for 24 hours. This year, in mid-July, the lucky Blitzers will be collecting aquatic insects. Last year’s BioBlitz was all about Lepidoptera. Below is a photo of a few samples collected during the BioBlitz of 2011.

From Acadia National Park Archives

Here’s something I’d never thought I’d say/write – below is a photo of a specimen drawer full of voles:

From Acadia National Park Archives

Of the many projects underway at Acadia’s archive, probably one of the most interesting is the Paintings and Art project. The staff and volunteers are collecting information about the Artists in Residence, photographing them for the new NPS museum website, and rotating the paintings in headquarters and at the Center. These artists donate one piece from the works they create while in residence at Acadia. I’m looking forward to seeing the works digitized because the ones I saw were located in a dark area of the archive, and therefore not easily photographable (even with my good low-light camera).

I’m very glad that Acadia is within a day’s drive of so many places in the Northeast. It gives the visitor a new perspective on the vibrant coastal life that can be had in Maine. The park also provides researchers with rich natural and local history resources within a beautiful setting. My favorite time to go is in the Fall, because I enjoy the cooler weather and colorful leaves, but no matter what time you visit, you won’t be able to miss why it’s called the “Pine Tree State.”

Contact Information
William Otis Sawtelle Curatorial Center
Acadia National Park
PO Box 177
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
207-288-8729
http://www.nps.gov/acad/historyculture/collections.htm

Museum Visit: Museum of Early Trades & Crafts in Madison, NJ

From June 2011

My apologies to the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts for clipping off the edge of their signage in my photo.

Last week, my mom and I had a lovely time visiting two Morris County museums, the one profiled in this post and the Morris Museum, where she's a member. (We also enjoyed a very tasty lunch at the newly re-opened Sirin Thai restaurant.) We hadn't originally planned to visit the trades and crafts museum, but we usually pass the building, so we decided to visit this time.

The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts started as a way for Edgar and Agnes Land, who lived in Madison and collected thousands of 18th and 19th century objects, to share their collections and educate people about the lives of the early artisans, craftspeople, and farmers in New Jersey. The building housing the museum is nothing short of gorgeous. It is often mistaken for a church, but carved into the stone over the entryway is the word "Library."

From June 2011

Opened on Memorial Day 1900, the Madison Free Public Library was a gift to the town from D. Willis James, a wealthy New York (originally from Liverpool, England) industrial capitalist. James had a summer estate in Madison, now known Giralda Farms (you may know it as the estate of Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge). We need another James today. He was so invested in the financial well-being of the library that he set up a trust fund for it based in the income raised from a commercial building he owned across the street from the library.

In the photo above, you can see one of the many beautiful architectural elements of the building. The archway to the Trustee Room shows seven seals from some of America's earliest colleges. Included are Queen's College (later Rutgers College, and eventually Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Harvard University, College of William and Mary, Princeton University, and Columbia University. Above the wood with the embedded seals you can see hand-painted designs that continue throughout the building.

Below is an example of a painted column.

From June 2011

In each room with stained-glass windows are beautiful glass-art medallions or plaques within the windows that display inspirational quotations. I can only imagine how stirring it must have been to have sat in the building when it was a library, surrounded by all of the grandeur. It made me a wee bit jealous of the folks who have the good fortune of working in it today.

Below are just a few of those windows that I photographed while walking around the exhibits.

From June 2011

From June 2011

From June 2011

From June 2011

From June 2011

As we explored the building, I was particularly impressed by the main exhibit "Mariners, Merchants, & Pirates." The clever curators use mock magnifying glasses to spotlight items found at the port of Perth Amboy. They also use rope to frame educational materials. It is one of the niftiest exhibits I've seen.

From June 2011

In the exhibit, there is a wealth of information about the tools sailors used to navigate, keep time, build ships, and generally do their work. There also are facts on pirates and privateers (separated only in category by a legal agreement). The exhibit will be featured at the museum until September 4, so add a visit to your summer calendar.

If you can't make it now, the museum has permanent exhibits and changing exhibits, as well as a research library worth exploring if you're interested trades and crafts topics. The permanent exhibits show how craftsmen and artisans created everyday objects like barrels, shoes, cabinets, and more. There also are exhibits on printing (complete with a large press) and other trades.

For more information and to plan your visit, contact the very nice folks at the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts.

Tour of The University of Arizona Museum of Art

Introduction
Note: For a short history of the University of Arizona in Tucson, please refer to the previous post.

When I travel, I research local cultural heritage institutions to visit. It is my great fortune to tour some of them specifically for this blog. Still others remain lovely memories of a visit to a unique place. For example, I recently visited two spectacular museums in Phoenix -- the Musical Instrument Museum and Heard Museum, as well as the Desert Botanical Gardens. If you are interested in seeing some of my photos of those great institutions, visit my Picasa site.

In Tucson, I already knew that I would be visiting the University of Arizona because it is home to many cultural heritage institutions. But when I began to dig a bit deeper, I found that the school’s Museum of Art was about to begin construction on its Archive of Visual Arts. This I had to see!

I contacted the Museum’s Executive Director, Charles Guerin, who graciously invited me to visit and tour their collections and new facility (previously the home of a local blood bank). He gave me an excellent guided tour of the museum’s current exhibits and drove me to the site of the archive-to-be. When we visited the archive building, I could see its potential for long-term storage of valuable holdings and a sizable reading room.

The construction workers were taking a break from demolishing the interior walls and repairing portions of the building as Guerin and I walked the length of the building from the back to the front. I saw immediately the appeal of using a former blood bank for the archive – a big cold storage vault for photos and other preservation needs. The team has a big job ahead of it to modernize the building and its HVAC system to protect the art archive, but they are definitely on their way. I decided not to photograph the building during its construction, but promised to return after the archive was up and running to take another tour.

About the Museum's Executive Director
Charles Guerin’s background in printmaking and painting no doubt informs his work at the Museum. Prior to becoming Executive Director of the Museum, he was Acting Director of the Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona (located more or less across the street from the Museum). He also served as Director of the University of Wyoming Art Museum, and consulted on the design of the American Heritage Center at the U of W as he built the Art Museum.

During my visit, Guerin was very generous with his time and spoke with me at length about why the museum created the archive.



He also talked with me about how he obtained the Museum’s first record collection, the papers of Robert T. McCall, arguably one of America’s most important illustrators. He is best known for illustrating and documenting much of the American space program. One of McCall’s most famous works hangs in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington , D.C., where a collection of his drawings also can be seen online.

McCall, an Arizona resident, passed away in March 2010, but before he died he had served on the board of the University’s Department of Astronomy. Guerin mentioned that he had been looking for a place to house many of his illustrations because although he had been selling the copyrights to use the works on postage stamps, etc., he did not sell those actual pieces. Guerin was very happy to accept the donation of McCall’s illustrations because illustration is an important field of study at the University’s area of Visual Communications. He also had the foresight to ask McCall for his archive of correspondence. Now, 20 cubic feet of McCall’s papers are waiting patiently for the new archive to take shape.

Guerin’s long-term vision is to target major artists, mainly in Western states, for inclusion in the Museum’s collections. He also wants to avoid circumstances where an artist passes away, and his/her children have all the artist’s boxes, which they might not want to keep and simply bring to the dump. Presently, Guerin has convinced several artists to leave their records and/or art to the Museum.

About the Collections
The best part of having a guided tour of a collection (especially by the institution’s Director) is having an expert on hand to answer all kinds of questions. But, when a cultural heritage institution uses archival records, such as letters, postcards, prints, and sketches, it helps put that artist into context and helps explain why these people are important. For example, in the series of photos below, you can see the exquisite photorealism of Audrey Flack’s work, Marilyn (Vanitas) II. The original transparency for the work was made in 1976, but Flack recently uncovered the study in her archives and made a Cibachrome print of it. The first image shows how the museum mounted the print on the railing above the painting hung in the main staircase. The second image shows the painting, and the third shows the print. All photos are displayed with permission of the Museum.

From University of Arizona

From University of Arizona

From University of Arizona

At the time of my visit, the Museum also exhibited a collection of works by Arthur Diehl, a late 19th/early 20th century “speed” painter who happened to be the grandfather of a Museum board member. The collection is on loan from a private family collection. Guerin pointed out how the Museum uses the family’s archive to further shape the exhibit. Below, the series of photos show the archival displays accompanying the Diehl exhibit.

From University of Arizona

From University of Arizona

From University of Arizona

I especially enjoyed seeing Diehl’s sketches for his paintings and the ephemera associated with the collection (shown below).

From University of Arizona

From University of Arizona

Conclusion
The University of Arizona Museum of Art has many claims to fame, including the remarkable Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo exhibit. Arizona Public Media produced a great documentary on the conservation of the work. However, my favorite part of the Museum is its curators’ use of archival materials to better tell the story of the artist and his/her work. I look forward to returning when the Archive of Visual Arts has been completed and populated with artists’ archives.

Contact Information
Charles Guerin
Executive Director
The University of Arizona Museum of Art
1031 N. Olive Road
P.O. Box 210002
Tucson, AZ 85721-0002
(520) 621-7567
caguerin@u.arizona.edu
http://artmuseum.arizona.edu/archive/index.shtml