Ed Vebell (American, 1921 - 2018) "Edison Invents Electric Light" Signed lower right. Original Acrylic painting on Hot Press Illustration Board.

Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.

This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood Commemorative Cover for Epic Events in American History series issued in 1985.

From the beginning, circumstances decreed that Americans would address themselves not so much to "Natural" Philosophy, as to the immediate and practical potentialities of Science. They were a new people in a new world. New methods of farming were required, now tools, even new measurements. The American Philosophical Society made this clear in its 1769 Charter: it was to address itself to agriculture, botany, navigation, and similar subjects. Benjamin Franklin -- who had seized the lightning from the skies and toppled tyrants from their thrones -- was one of the Society's first presidents, and a model to its members. Thomas Alva Edison was in many ways Franklin's legitimate successor. Like Franklin, he could not refrain from improving everything he set eyes on. Not a theoretical scientist, he was the most successful of all scientists interested in the well being and convenience, the wealth and health of the ordinary man. Everything he touched, he improved: the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, photography, motion pictures, and -- perhaps most important of all -- electric lighting, one of the greatest boons to mankind. When he was 80, Congress awarded Edison a Gold Medal for "inventions that revolutionized civilization." More literally than anyone else of our time, Edison merits the motto: Fiat Lux, let there be light.

Image Size: 19.75 x 21 in.
Overall Size: 26.5 x 26.75 in.
Unframed.
(B05695)

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26.5 x 26.75 in