HR 2627, the Lifetime Innovations of Thomas Edison Act (LITE) Act, is a testament to Edison whose impact is still being felt today. Congress, in 1928, honored Edison with the Congressional Gold Medal for the “development and application of inventions that have revolutionized civilization in the last century.
The Edison site is actually comprised of two separate sites — Edison’s home of 45 years (known as Glenmont) and his laboratory complex. The Edison site houses over five million pages of documents, over 400,000 artifacts, approximately 35,000 sound recordings, and over 10,000 books from Edison’s personal library. With buildings dating back to 1887, the laboratory complex was one of America’s first research and development facilities, and is where Edison earned over half of his 1,093 patents.
H.R. 2627 is critical to efforts to protect the Thomas Edison National Historic Site. The site was listed, in 1992, by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the nation’s most “endangered historic places.