Pallone Announces Federal Grant to Rutgers for Papers of Thomas Edison Project

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) today announced a $350,000 grant to Rutgers University’s Papers of Thomas Edison project from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The grant will allow the project to prepare for publication two volumes (volumes 9 and 10) of the papers of inventor Thomas Edison, covering the period 1888-1892.

“I am pleased that National Endowment for the Humanities has continued their commitment to Rutgers with this grant,” said Congressman Pallone. “This federal funding will help Rutgers in its role as a leader in the study and publication of Thomas Edison. It is especially fitting for Rutgers to do this important work with Edison’s lab having been located just a few miles away. The project made possible by this grant will help us better understand American history and will be an invaluable resource for students.”

“Thomas Edison is a transformative figure whose inventions and methods still provide a model and inspiration for modern day innovators,” saidPaul Israel, Director and General Editor, Thomas A. Edison Papers, Rutgers University. “The goal of the Edison Papers project at Rutgers University is to make his papers widely available for study not only by scholars interested in the history of American science, technology and industry, but by students of all ages. NEH support of our book and image editions has been essential for making them accessible.”

These volumes funded by the grant will be part of the overall project, which is a fifteen-volume book edition that will contain 6,500 transcribed and annotated letters, notebook entries, autobiographical writings, and other documents from Edison's lengthy career. The grant is from NEH’s Scholarly Editions Program, which supports the preparation of editions and translations of pre-existing texts and documents of value to the humanities that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions.