Several phonographs were displayed in the Edison exhibit at the Van Kirk Museum in Sparta. (Photos provided)
The exhibit included a photograph of Thomas Edison and some of his sayings.
We are on a long, and many week, historical journey through Sussex County as we visit our local history societies and their museums.
This week, we visit the Sparta Historical Society’s Edison exhibit.
Come along with me as we take a breathtaking visit to Sparta.
During the darkest time of the pandemic, in October 2020, I had an appointment to tour the Van Kirk Museum, operated by the Sparta Historical Society.
The museum is on the estate, the 3.5-acre old farm, of the Van Kirk family. This one family owned the land from the 1780s until fairly recently.
It was part of the Sparta school system for a time and now is the home of the Sparta Historical Society, a vibrant society made up of many dedicated citizens.
My guide was Jack Clark. Like many in the society, he was a senior and he also was an avid proponent of history.
He had a special talent to provide, having spent his career as a museum curator. His skills built over a lifetime were very valuable for the Van Kirk Museum. He has, since that time, passed on from this world.
Jack implemented several good museum methods in the museum. One of these was the use of “rotating exhibits,” a method of presenting a turnover of existing museum artifacts or by bringing in fresh presentations from other museums.
A crown jewel, in my opinion, was when he brought in the Edison exhibit. He had been instrumental in creating an assemblage containing a history of Thomas Edison.
Jack had worked with the museum holdings, locally owned artifacts and, in a large way, many objects from the Edison National Historic Site, which were on loan.
Why here? Why Sparta in Sussex County?
Well, in the 1880s, Edison had looked widely to find a body of iron ore to mine. The best one he found, one that supposedly had the needle jump on his finder, was here near the Ogden estate, above Ogdensburg on Sparta Mountain.
Edison built a large concentrating plant and a railroad to the canal boats on Lake Hopatcong.
He had come up with many innovative ideas in the process of the operation and the whole project was an engineering wonder in the wooded mountains of Sussex County.
But like other iron mining concerns in the East, “Ogden’s Baby” went out of business because of economics beyond his control. He also had a relationship with the old Limecrest, also in Sparta Township.
Edison is in many ways “America’s inventor” for all his accomplishments and technology gifts to society. He is admired for his persistence and has inspired many an experimenter to keep at it and eventually succeed.
If you had to list America’s top 10 people who made a difference in this word, Edison would undoubtedly be included.
Jack had showed me a delightful tour of Edison’s artifacts. The displays were highly professional, richly adorned and balanced in view. There were descriptions, and great stories to tell with each setting of Edison’s many accomplishments.
Light bulbs, several elaborate phonographs, telegraphs, dictating equipment - the tour was fantastic. A beautiful painting was displayed of the great inventor along with some of his well-remembered sayings, such as:
“I never perfected an innovation that I did not think about in terms of service it might give to others.”
“Negative results are just what I want. They are as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.”
I highly recommend taking a tour of the Van Kirk Museum. The Edison exhibit has been replaced with other, very inviting exhibits -some in shown in the Jack B. Clark Memorial Room.
Bill Truran, Sussex County Historian