Edison, Thomas A. An important unpublished archive featuring (7) autograph letters....

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Edison, Thomas A. An important unpublished archive featuring (7) autograph letters. An important unpublished archive featuring (7) autograph letters signed ("T.A.E.", "Father" and "Pop"), 10 pages, various sizes, mostly accomplished in ink with a few penciled examples, Menlo Park & Orange, New Jersey, [Fort Meyers, Florida], 29 September 1877 through ca. 1929, to his eldest daughter, Marion Estelle Edison Oeser (1873-1965); an inscription, signed Dad, on a 5 x 3.25 in. card; together with letters from several other correspondents including her brothers Thomas Alva Edison, Jr., Charles Edison, her mother-in-law, Mina Miller Edison, as well as former Edison Pioneer Samuel Insull, and Edison assistant, Frank A. Wardlaw, Jr. and others, totaling 36 letters (62 pp.). The group also includes a calendar book kept by Maron Edison Oeser, as well as 15 original photographs including an apparently unpublished early tintype of Edison together with related ephemera. Exhibit expected wear; overall condition very good. Remarkable archive of letters belonging to Thomas Edison's eldest daughter, Marion, with 7 personal letters from her father and 36 from her mother, and brothers Thomas and Charles, together with rare family photos. Edison always saw to his daughters' financial needs including, "...the Phonograph bonds and allowance would give you 1800 per year ..." Marion Estelle Edison was the eldest child of Mary and Thomas Edison. She was nicknamed "Dot," a reference to Morse Code - an homage to her father's first professional occupation. Following her mother's death in 1884, she grew very attached to her father, which bred no small degree of friction when Edison married the nineteen-year-old Mina Miller in 1886 - only five years her senior. The correspondence from Edison begins with a touching letter to his first wife, Mary (or "Ducky" as he fondly called her): Menlo Park, 29 September 1877: Dear Ducky, I want to see you so bad that I will come out for you next week, although I do not see how I can spare time...I cannot possibly stay but one day and Marion must not expect me to so you must be ready to go when I arrive...Everything Ok here but your being away - I do not sleep well since you left and that makes me feel a little Ill... Thomas Edison was terribly fond of his eldest daughter and did everything in his power to support her financially. Writing from Orange, ca. 1890, he informed her, Marion You have an income from US bonds $400 per year and with the Phonograph bonds and allowance would give you 1800 per year - If I should provide one thousand dollars additional for the next year would this be sufficient...In 1894 Marion travelled to Austria and Germany, and after she became engaged to Oscar Oeser, a young German military officer, Edison began rounding up funds to provide his daughter with a respectable dowry. Writing on Sunday Nov 11/94, he informed her that S[ameul] O[gden] has arrived home but he does not bring the data I want regarding the money necessary to afford the income required by law therefore I have asked him to write Mr Oeser...for information, I will take immediate steps to have your money released from the Court, I understand from SO. That about $20,000 will be required...I will also furnish, so you can rest assured that the money will be forthcoming before Feby or march depending on the Court, My formal consent I intended to have sent today but the Notary public was away so I will send it next week. I see that you have it very bad but I guess it is all right because I am very well impressed with Oeser and think he is not only honest but a man of ability... Although Edison was happy with the match, he certainly missed his daughter and hoped one day she should return. In an undated note (ca. 1900), Edison writes: Mina's Letter fails to mention that I sent you 10000 franco [illg.] to be added o your letter of Credit - I see by Mrs Earls letters you are getting along nicely = I hope you wont be marked in the slightest and as soon as you feel like it return to the Land of the finest and the best the almighty has created. Marion enjoyed travel, and sometime after her return to the United States she proposed taking a cross-country journey, to which her father opined: Marion: I strongly advise you not to go to California alone with just a Chauffeur he might attack you - its a long monotonous dreary journey[?] Think you should Come to Florida by West coast side & go back on East Coast and then toward N England, afterwards the next year you could go west by Railway thru the Canadian Rockies which has grandest scenery in America then go down the Coast to Los Angles & Yosemite then to Grand Can[y]on...The collection features fifteen photographs, many of them candid and not published including three from the 16 May 1925 dedication of a memorial erected at the site of his Menlo Park Laboratory by the State of New Jersey in his honor. It also features what appears to be an unpublished 2.25 x 2.5 in. tintype photograph of Edison posing with Marion and two others. A remarkable and personal correspondence. Provenance: Marion Estelle Edison Oeser; Lois Marsh Werme (Oeser's neighbor), Norwalk Connecticut; to her descendants.