Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Signed Program from Edison's 70th Birthday Testimonial Dinner

Edison at 70: program signed by the Wizard of Menlo Park, Henry Ford, and the Edison inner circle

Program from a "Testimonial Dinner tendered to Thomas A. Edison by his Employees in honor of his Seventieth Birthday," at the Edison Storage Battery Building in West Orange, New Jersey, on February 10, 1917, 6 x 9.75, signed on the backing card in ink by Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Mina Miller Edison, Charles Edison, and Miller Reese Hutchison. Also signed underneath the four program pages and on the reverse by a variety of noted Edison employees and associates, including Fred Ott, Lewis Lueder, William Henry Meadowcroft, J.V. Miller, and many more. Affixed above the program sheets is a golden wax seal featuring Edison's likeness. In very good to fine condition, with scattered light staining and soiling.

Held on February 10, 1917, the eve of Thomas Edison’s seventieth birthday, this West Orange testimonial dinner honored the inventor at the height of his stature as America’s foremost technological icon. Staged by his employees inside the Edison Storage Battery Building, the event reflected the extraordinary loyalty and institutional pride surrounding Edison’s vast industrial laboratory, where generations of machinists, chemists, engineers, and assistants helped transform his ideas into practical products. The presence of Henry Ford—Edison’s close friend and admirer—alongside Mina and Charles Edison, Miller Reese Hutchison, Fred Ott, William Henry Meadowcroft, and other longtime associates makes the program a rich commemorative piece from the inner circle of the Edison enterprise.