This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to Edison's vacation trip to the Shenandoah Valley and Great Smoky Mountains, which began on August 16 and ended with his return to West Orange on September 2. Most of the documents pertain to planning and arrangements, including discussion of tires, climate, possible routes, and itineraries. Also included are several handwritten communications from Edison to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, who was invited to participate but unable to do so. Other correspondents who did accompany Edison include naturalist John Burroughs, rubber manufacturer Harvey S. Firestone, and U.S. Shipping Board Chairman Edward N. Hurley. Agriculture professor Robert J. H. De Loach, who also went along, is mentioned in some of the correspondence. In addition there are letters from Burroughs' longtime companion Dr. Clara Barrus and from Ford's executive secretary Ernest Liebold. A few of the letters were written after the completion of the journey, but none of them discuss the events of the trip itself.
Approximately 60 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material includes map requests addressed to automobile clubs, routine correspondence about arrangements, hotel and restaurant receipts from the first stage of the trip, and documents containing information duplicated in the selected items.
A twenty-page typescript by Firestone containing reminiscences of the trip can be found in the "Edisonia" folder in the Family Records Series, Charles Edison Fund Collection. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.