Thomas Alva Edison

Object Details

Artist

Abraham Archibald Anderson, 1847 - 1940

Sitter

Thomas Alva Edison, 11 Feb 1847 - 18 Oct 1931

Exhibition Label

Born Milan, Ohio

Thomas Edison gained world renown for his inventions, including the phonograph; incandescent lighting; and the Kinetoscope, an early motion picture camera. The wealthy entrepreneur was at the height of his career when Abraham A. Anderson, an American artist based in Paris, began this portrait during Edison’s visit to the city for the Universal Exposition of 1889.

Edison’s inventions were the highlight of the exposition’s “Gallery of Machines,” with one pavilion devoted to his electric light and another to his recently improved phonograph, which Anderson chose to picture. The wax cylinders on the table were used for recording. Although Edison patented the first version of the device in 1877, earning himself the title of the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” eleven years passed before he achieved sufficient clarity of sound to make it commercially viable. “When this was done,” he reported, “I knew that everything else could be done which was a fact.”

Nacido en Milan, Ohio

Thomas Edison se hizo famoso en el mundo por sus inventos, entre ellos el fonógrafo, la lámpara incandescente y kinetoscopio, un temprano visor de películas. El adinerado empresario estaba en la cumbre de su carrera cuando Abraham A. Anderson, artista estadounidense radicado en París, comenzó este retrato en ocasión de su visita a dicha ciudad para la Exposición Universal de 1889.

Los inventos de Edison fueron la máxima atracción de la “Galería de Máquinas” de la feria, donde se dedicó un pabellón a su iluminación eléctrica y otro a su recién mejorado fonógrafo, mostrado aquí por Anderson. Los cilindros de cera que vemos sobre la mesa se usaban para grabar. Aunque Edison patentó la primera versión del aparato en 1877, ganándose el título de “Mago de Menlo Park”, pasaron 11 años antes de que lograra la claridad sonora necesaria para hacerlo viable comercialmente. “Cuando esto se logró”, relató, “supe que todo lo demás podía lograrse, que era un hecho”.

Provenance

The artist; his daughter Eleanor A. Campbell, Scarsdale, New York; gift 1942 to NCFA; transferred 1965 to NPG.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the Smithsonian American Art Museum; gift of Eleanor A. Campbell to the Smithsonian Institution, 1942

1890

Object number

NPG.65.23

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Painting

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Stretcher: 114.3 x 138.7 x 2.5cm (45 x 54 5/8 x 1")

Frame: 157.5 x 181.8 x 9.8cm (62 x 71 9/16 x 3 7/8")

See more items in

National Portrait Gallery Collection

Exhibition

Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900

On View

NPG, East Gallery 131

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Home Furnishings\Furniture\Table

Interior\Laboratory

Equipment\Laboratory Equipment\Test tube

Equipment\Industrial

Thomas Alva Edison: Male

Thomas Alva Edison: Science and Technology\Inventor

Thomas Alva Edison: Civilian awards\Congressional Gold Medal

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.65.23

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4ecdef9fc-a399-40ad-97a4-0121bb6bd340