General Electric’s Camp National 1916 Photo Album

Souvenir album commemorating the 1916 anniversary camp held by the National Electric Light Association as part of the General Electric Company. Album contains 85 silver gel prints of various sizes, mostly around 3”x 2”. The photos accompany a humorous long-form poem by Matthew Luckiesh, a physicist and the Director of General Electric's Lighting Research Laboratory at its Nela Park National Lamps Works facility in Ohio. The poem describes the events of the camp and names many of the participants. Many of the photos directly correspond to events mentioned in the poem. The album has dark green boards quarter bound with pebbled leather. “Camp National 1916” is stamped in yellow on the cover along with a gilt and yellow image of two fish. Album measures approximately 13 ½” x 11”. Leather is cracked along hinges and beginning to chip away. There is a large damp stain on the back board. Moderate soiling and edge wear. Album has thick teal leaves with green illustrations and black lettering. Photos are tipped in with glue on one edge, with 3 to 5 pictures on most pages, always on the recto. String binding still holds all pages tightly. Many photos show slight silvering. Some photos are overexposed or washed out, but most have crisp, clear images. Overall, very good condition. The album was produced to commemorate a camp held in the summer of 1916 to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the National Electric Light Association. NELA was founded in 1901 (originally called the National Electric Lamp Company, renamed in 1906) by combining smaller companies. General Electric bought 75% of the organization at its founding and later acquired it completely in 1911 following an antitrust investigation. The camp took place each year on the company owned Association Island in Henderson Harbor upstate New York, which later served as an inspiration in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Player Piano. The poem also includes multiple mentions of Ohio (including Nela Park in East Cleveland) , probably because many camp attendees traveled from there to attend the camp. Travel by train and ship are both depicted in the photos and mentioned in the poem. Most of the photos show people participating in the various activities of the camp. The camp appears to have been organized solely for male employees. Notable scenes include a hazing ritual of making the “rookies” dress up as clowns; sports and games such as polo and tennis; water activities like swimming and fishing; a movie showing; something called “Manufacturing Night”; and a climactic banquet that featured a woman springing from a cake to serenade the crowd. The only text aside from the poem are the lyrics to parody songs apparently sung at the banquet. This album provides a unique glimpse into a specific time in the history of one of America’s most recognizable companies. No copies in OCLC as of April 1st, 2021. .