Geeky Tourism Locations: Thomas Edison’s Lab

Do you know where the phonograph was invented? How about the moving picture? How about the practical light bulb? That’s right it was in… Northern New Jersey! Actually, West Orange, NJ. Seriously.

This series of posts reflects my inner geek. It chronicles a number of information technology (IT) related “tourist attractions” that I would love to visit before I die. Some of them are simply far away locations that I dream of making it to and others will be locations that I would need some assistance obtaining access to. Please feel free to add your own via the comments block below.

Today’s destination is the home and personal laboratory of Thomas Edison. The greatest inventor in modern American history and certainly a worthy idol for technology lovers.

Wikipedia does great justice to this topic.

The web home of this location is the National Park Service. It reports that:

“Imagine your day ending at sunset. Life without music, motion pictures, radio. Life without light itself. Our modern lives began at the turn of the century in West Orange, New Jersey. The Laboratory and home of Thomas Edison, stopped in time, continue to teach a new generation.”

Believe it or not, you can get to this National Park in only 30 minutes from New York City. It is inexpensive to visit and has guided tours! While visiting this location, you can see:

A collection of his inventions
His final home
His personal effects
The first movie house
The phonograph
The first recording studio
and more!

This is how the park self-describes itself:

The original music recording studio, Thomas Edison’s private laboratory, and photography studio are open to the public for the first time in the history of the park. The original furnishings have been moved back into many rooms and the vast and unique museum collections are available for all to see, hear, and experience. Installation of a new elevator and stair tower adjacent to the main laboratory building allows new public access to the upper floors of the laboratory that now feature new exhibits.

I recommend that you and your family go. It is fun for kids of all ages and can motivate children to dream of huge technology contributions. Highly recommended.

Go to the official National Parks Service website and check it out!

So where do you want to visit that is related to your interest in The Information Age and Information Technology? Do you want to see where people worked, like this article, or where objects are? Together we could make a terrific list. Please add below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 1, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Inventor’s Digest