This photograph shows Thomas EdisonΓÇÖs father, Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr.
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This photograph shows Thomas EdisonΓÇÖs mother, Nancy Elliott Edison.
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This photograph was taken in 1861, when Edison was 14. By this time Edison was partially deaf, due to a childhood illness.
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Edison was the youngest of seven children. This photograph shows the house where he was born in Milan, Ohio. Edison lived in this house from 1847 until 1854, when his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan.
The Grand Trunk Railway ran trains between Port Huron and Detroit. At the age of 12, Edison began selling newspapers, sandwiches, and other goods on one of the trains. He also established a small chemistry lab in the baggage car of the train. In 1862 he decided to start writing and publishing his own newspaper, which he called The Herald. This copy of The Herald is dated February 3, 1862.
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This photograph was taken in 1881, when Edison was 34. By this time Edison was already being called "The Wizard of Menlo Park."
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Edison was married twice and had six children. He married his first wife, Mary Stilwell, in 1871 when she was 16. Mary died in 1884. In 1886 Edison married Mina Miller, whom he met at a party in Boston.
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This photograph of Edison was taken in the library of his West Orange laboratory.
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This photograph from 1912 shows Edison eating a meal with a group of six associates known as the "Insomnia Squad." These men all went for days on little or no sleep while working on EdisonΓÇÖs inventions.
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Edison often took catnaps instead of sleeping for long periods of time. This photograph from 1911 shows Edison taking one of his naps on a laboratory workbench.
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One of EdisonΓÇÖs inventions was the Edison Business Phonograph, which was used to record dictation. This photograph shows Edison using his Business Phonograph in 1911.
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Edison built his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey in 1888. He kept his rolltop desk in the library. The statue on the right is of a boy holding up an electric light bulb. The statue was titled The Triumph of Light.
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Edison made improvements to his Business Phonograph and called the new machine the Electric Ediphone. This photograph was used as an advertisement for the new device in 1915.
