In Nature’s Laboratory: Original scrapbook, commemorating Edison’s
road trip with Firestone, Summer, 1916

In the early 20th century the internal combustion engine overtook the steam engine as the world’s most important power generator. Today we don’t think of this engine in romantic or poetic terms but in its earliest days, it was associated with individual freedom, the power to explore faster and farther, etc. Such attitudes are evident in this 1916 photo scrapbook and diary album. It depicts a vacation automobile trip taken by Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone of Firestone Tires (the first global manufacturer of auto tires), and the famous naturalist John Burroughs.