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Outreach
How to book a program
Ranger conducted programs
General Audience
Museum in a Box
Research and Reference
Ranger Conducted Programs
Working for the Wizard
Grades 3-6
 1093 patents! You've heard of them---the phonograph, incandescent light, and motion pictures. These are just a few of the things made practical because of Thomas Alva Edison's INVENTION PROCESS. Through the use of hands-on activities, students will become an Edison employee, or "mucker", as he liked to call them. Join the exploration and see how more than half of Edison's inventions became reality.
Maximum Group Size :50 (Limited Availability)
That WAS Entertainment
Grade 4-7
 Using the latest in 1890s technology and modern VCR equipment, students will be transported to the beginnings of home entertainment. Gain an appreciation for how Thomas Edison brought music and magic into the home through two of his inventions, the phonograph and motion pictures. Auditorium style program.
Maximum Group Size: 250 (Limited Availability)
"Who's the Victor?" Edison and the Phonograph
Grade 8-12
This brand new interdisciplinary program combines history with technology and science. Students will see and hear how the phonograph matured from a novelty into major industry in which even Edison himself could not compete successfully. Learn how Edison and his team of "muckers" combined physics and chemistry with popular tastes and economic insight. The program concludes with students working in teams, just like Edison's "muckers", to solve a problem.
Maximum Group Size: 30 (Limited Availability)
General Audience
Celebrating Edison's Legacy-The Invention Factory
Celebrating Edison is a 45-minute media presentation highlighting Edison National Historic Site. Take a tour through Edison's "Invention Factory". See what made Thomas Edison the "Man of the Millennium!"
Auditorium Style Program.
Maximum Group Size: 250 (Limited Availability)
Thomas Edison Slept Here...Sometimes: The Edison Family Estate
Although the famed inventor was known to work twenty-four hour days, and hundred hour weeks, Thomas Edison did not spend ALL his time working. The Glenmont estate, less than a mile from his laboratory, was where Edison spent his limited leisure time visiting with friends like Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, entertaining royalty, and relaxing with his wife and children. This media presentation will explore a side of Edison's life rarely seen in textbooks and documentaries.
Auditorium Style Program.
Maximum Group Size: 250 (Limited Availability)
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Museum in a Box
Traveling Trunk: "Working for Edison"
(Appropriate for grades 4-6)
What was it like to work for Thomas Edison in his laboratory? How about working as a servant at Glenmont, the Edison family estate? This "museum in a box" includes curriculum-based lesson plans, historic objects, and reproduction items from the 1920s that the students may handle. Students use role-playing, map skills and invention exercises to gain an understanding of what it was like to work for the world's greatest inventor. The only cost is returning the trunk via UPS.
Explore your National Parks: Historic Places *
Explore some of the special places in America's past. Using six classroom lesson plans, students will examine the past through written and visual documents. The six lesson plans are:
-San Antonio Missions: Spanish Influence in Texas
-The Old Courthouse in St. Louis: Yesterday and Today
-Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg
-The Invention factory: Thomas Edison's Laboratories
-Remembering Pearl Harbor: The USS Arizona Memorial
-The First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill
The only cost is returning the box via UPS.
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Videos
The Great Train Robbery: A film produced by Edison in 1903.
The Invention Factory: A 20-minute orientation film about Edison and his accomplishments.
The only cost is returning the videos.
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Research and Reference Requests
Questions on any Edison related topic may be submitted by telephone, mail, and e-mail. Included are requests for copies of historic film footage available on VHS cassette. Inquiries may be directed to the Chief of Interpretation:
- By mail: Edison NHS, Main Street and Lakeside Avenue, West Orange, NJ 07052
- By telephone: (973)736-2783 ext. 6
- By E-mail: edis_Interpretation@nps.gov
Individuals needing access to primary source material are encouraged to make use of the microfilm edition of The Thomas A. Edison Papers available at many major universities and also through interlibrary loan.
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Booking a Program
Reservation can be made by calling (973) 736-0550 ext.17
Your school or group must be either in Essex County or in New Jersey within 15 miles of West Orange.
Educational programs are scheduled between 10:00am and 2:00pm - Monday through Friday.
* Explore Your National Parks: Historic Places, developed in cooperation with the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places and Teaching with Historic Places program, is made available by the National Park Foundation through generous funding by Target and Eureka. Thanks also to Discovery Channel, for providing video editing and production.
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