Edison Lightbulb, 1882, Harvard Theatre Collection
This incandescent lightbulb was manufactured by the Edison Company for the Bijou Theatre on Washington Street, in the heart of Boston’s Theater District. The Boston Bijou was the first theater in the U.S. to be entirely lit by electricity. In 1882, Thomas Edison himself supervised the installation of 644 incandescent bulbs throughout the theater.
Before electricity, theaters were lit by gas lamps and were highly prone to fire — one British engineer calculated the average lifespan of a theater in the U.S. at just 13 years. Electricity was cleaner and safer than gas, and the incandescent bulb drastically reduced the threat of fire. This lightbulb is a prime example of that technological innovation.
While it would take decades for electricity to become commonplace in homes, theaters were a place where the public could witness such advancements firsthand. Theatergoing at the time was a more democratic pastime than it is today, and theater was a major part of Boston’s cultural history, despite the city’s Puritan past. The theater district gave birth to vaudeville and incubated some of America’s most darling musicals and daring new dramas on their way to Broadway. Boston was — and in some respects still is — a theater town, and the Harvard Theatre Collection has been documenting the history of local performing arts for over a century.
The lightbulb is held at Houghton as part of an archival collection relating to the Bijou’s day-to-day management in the 1880s. Due to its fragility, it is stored away from bumping elbows and may take a bit longer to retrieve than, say, an ordinary book. But any researcher can put in an advance request and come see it. That is pretty rare — I can’t think of many opportunities where one can examine an actual Edison lightbulb without it being behind glass.
—Dale Stinchcomb, Assistant Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection