The Edison Museum, a science and history museum about the life and inventions of

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

, is located in

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

, United States at 350 Pine St. on the grounds of Edison Plaza.

Building

The museum building was formerly the Gulf States Utilities Travis Street Power Substation. The power substation came on line in 1929. According to the ''Texas State Historical Marker'' in front of the substation building, the substation provided power ranging from street lights to cotton gins to rice irrigation to refineries in spite of

The Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank an ...

Museum

"...The museum is the only facility of its kind west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

..." Interactive exhibits about Edison, his inventions and innovations, as well as historic artifacts from his life are featured. Featured inventions include the

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...

, the

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

, and some of Edison's early

motion pictures A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

. There is also a reference library about Edison. The collection origin is tied to W. Donham Crawford, former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of ''Gulf States Utilities''. Crawford was an avid collector of Edison artifacts. The collection was bequeathed to the museum in the early 1980s by Crawford's widow. The museum is part of a concentration of several museums in the downtown Beaumont area. It is located blocks away from the Tyrrell Historical Library, the

Art Museum of Southeast Texas The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) is an art museum in Beaumont, Texas, United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a fe ...

, the Beaumont Children's Museum (temporarily located in the Beaumont Civic Center), and the Fire Museum of Texas.

References

External links

Edison Museum
- official site {{Thomas Edison Museums in Beaumont, Texas History museums in Texas Thomas Edison museums Biographical museums in Texas Technology museums in Texas Telecommunications museums in the United States Science museums in Texas

Building

Museum

See also

References

External links