The Florida Life of Thomas Edison

by Michele Wehrwein Albion

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was America's most famous and, arguably, most prolific inventor. But few realize the extent to which he called Florida, not New Jersey, home. From 1885 until his death in 1931, Edison wintered in the sleepy Gulf Coast town of Fort Myers, south of Tampa. There, he was the pride of the small town, which eagerly watched to see what magic the Wizard would conjure. The local newspaper chronicled Edison's local experiments, his establishment of a laboratory in town, and his unsuccessful efforts to electrify the area. Edison's presence encouraged Henry Ford to buy the Florida estate next door. Edison's experiments with rubber from local plants intrigued Ford and Harvey Firestone, who funded Edison's research. Using a wide range of little-known resources, including photographs, manuscripts, maps, and newspaper accounts, Michele Albion explores an important facet of Edison's life that is largely unknown. In doing so, she presents the full story of his professional and leisure time while on holiday. Particularly interesting is the impact his wife, Mina, had on the culture and community of Fort Myers. The Florida Life of Thomas Edison reveals how the Edisons' legacy influenced women's history, environmental history, black history, and Florida history. 

Genres: Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2008

About the author

From the time she was a small child, Michele Wehrwein has been passionate about history. ("I remember making museum exhibits with my toys. The exhibit labels were marked with x's because I couldn't read.") So it is no surprise that she landed her first museum job at 14. After several summers as a tour guide, she helped catalog artifacts. Her life-long dream was to become a museum curator.

Miss Wehrwein graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in history and spent summers and school breaks working at museums. Then it was off to graduate school. She received a Masters in Museum Studies from The George Washington University and worked at the United States Holocaust Museum where she helped research and prepare objects for exhibit. "It was a humbling experience to know that the artifacts I handled would speak to generations about the infamy of the Holocaust," she said.

In 1992, Miss Wehrwein was hired as the first professional curator of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida. In a field where curatorial jobs were scarce, it was the realization of a life's dream. "The problem was, I was only 25. It was pretty obvious I needed a new dream," she confesses. She decided to write about Thomas and Mina Edison and their home, Seminole Lodge. "I began with a column in the local paper. It was awful, actually. I had a lot to learn about writing history, but it was a start."

While in Florida Miss Wehrwein met and married her husband, James. After five years at the Edison and Ford, their daughter was born and the family moved to New Hampshire. The family now includes three more children and a codependent cat. Miss Wehrwein confesses that writing is a struggle as she tries to balance the demands of a large family. But she is grateful that her love of history and museums has coalesced and manifested itself in The Florida Life of Thomas Edison.

Reviews

[Cheryl S.]

Well written and researched. Enjoyable.

[Carol Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the history in the book!

[Ruffin Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

The biography “The Florida Life of Thomas Edison” was a book about Edison living in Florida and slowing modernizing it and improving it. Edison first moved to Florida for a place to build his winter house. Edison truly loved nature, birds, and other wildlife. He thought that lots of Florida was untouched. Florida at the time did not have a very large population, and almost no one had electricity which made it perfect for Edison. When Edison moved there he brought with him the power. He promised power to all the people around where he was living but he did not give it to them right then, it took a few years before power became a big thing in Florida. I really like how the book goes along with his life and saying how Florida started to get bigger faster and faster just by Edison moving there.
I also like how it talks about how Edison and Henry Ford where good friends. Because of his relationship with Ford, he wanted to help him in some way. Edison did lots of experiments to find out if rubber trees could be grown in Florida. Ford needed the rubber for the tires to his cars. Furthermore I like how the book shows a good description of how his house was made, and why it took so long. It took a while because he did not live there for a couple of years so the house did not fully get built.
Later on he built a public pier where people could fish, and his personal steam boat could be docked. The reason that Edison moved to Florida was to find a quiet place he could come in the winter, but that went away after a while. Towards the end of Edison’s life, Florida had greatly grown in population and technology. He brought the light to Florida, literally.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about Fort Meyers and Thomas Edison's winter home and laboratory. Edison himself is a tangential character. His wife Mina got much more involved in the community and she contributed time and resources. Fort Meyers was proud of its very own "celebrity, " and welcomed the Edisons and their friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Firestone underwrote Edison's experiments with domestic plants which could be used to make a rubber sufficient for domestic use if available rubber was needed for wartime. The book was well documented. Surprisingly, it did not encourage me to make a day trip to Fort Meyers.