Edison Talking Doll
date: label: date made
content: 1890
notes: label: Description
content: This example of an Edison talking doll has a ceramic head, a metal body, and articulated limbs made from painted wood. Inside the torso is mounted a tiny phonograph bearing a brown wax record that recites the children’s rhyme “Jack and Jill,” as recorded by a young woman. This nursery rhyme was one of twelve recitations available. Turning a crank inserted into the back of the doll’s torso rotates the record for play, and shifting an adjacent lever returns the stylus of the phonograph to the start position. Whether this doll was ever finished with a wig and clothing is unknown.
label: Description
content: Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, and when he imagined the uses for his new machine, he speculated that, beyond serving as a means of preserving dictation, it might animate toys. His idea took form in a talking doll, manufactured briefly in 1890.
label: Description
content: In 1887 Edison had licensed W. W. Jacques and Lowell C. Briggs of Boston to make and sell talking dolls as the Edison Toy Phonograph Company. The Edison Phonograph Works, in West Orange, N.J., manufactured the phonographs, inserted them into dolls, and packaged them for sale. The talking dolls work imperfectly, sold poorly, and proved a costly mistake for Edison. By 1896, all remaining unsold phonographs for dolls were reportedly destroyed.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view (crank; key; wire link)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Family & Social Life
label: See more items in
content: Cultures & Communities
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise (doll)
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.311215
label: catalog number
content: 311215
label: accession number
content: 143749
objectType: label: Object Name
content: doll, talking
label: Other Terms
content: Mechanical
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 22 1/8 in x 9 1/2 in x 4 3/8 in; 56.1975 cm x 24.13 cm x 11.1125 cm