Luminaria

1912 · ref. 53705 — Association Island Henderson Harbor NY: N.E.L.A. General Electric Corporation 1912. Oblong folio. 14.25 x 10.75 in. 40 leaves unnumbered. composed of thick brown paper stock w/ Arts & Crafts motif borders & decorations in mauve. With 101 tipped-in original silver gelatin sepia-tinted photographs ranging in size from 2 in. rounds to 5.5 x 9.95 in. and all are mounted into the albums most with printed text captions. Original brown half-suede over brown softcovers yapp edges stamped gilt N.E.L.A. logo and title on front cover stamped in gilt minor edgewear rubbing still VG exemplar. First edition of this lavishly produced souvenir album filled with original photographs of the antics by participants for the National Electric Lamp Association at their Camp National. Association Island in Henderson Harbor NY was purchased in 1905 from private owners and renamed. This lavishly appointed island contained a town hall dining hall with full staff of waitresses and housekeepers a hospital tent swimming pool areas for tents recreational trap shooting baseball diamonds theatre and marina for sport boating. These photos vividly portray how these mid-summer retreats were filled with conferences but also devoted to the executives reliving the joys of the summer camp retreats of the well-to-do childhoods during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. They created pennants went sport fishing played in tennis tournaments croquet matches poker games baseball games parades costume parties minstrel shows plays parties and more. These Camp National events continued on a more subdued scale after General Electric acquired N.E.L.A. and began using Association Island as a corporate retreat and training center for GE executives customers and employees through the end of the 1950s. The Elfun Society General Electric’s famed think-tank was founded in 1928 on the Island and named in honor of the historic elm tree depicted in the decorative borders. General Electric’s use of Association Island even served as the basis for Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel Player Piano in 1952 a satire of the antics of engineers and managers of a large unnamed corporation on their annual retreat. The National Electric Lamp Association was founded at the end of the 19th century during a great deal of turmoil in the incandescent lamp industry and a number of small lamp manufacturers needed to pool their resources in order to compete with General Electric. Ironically Franklin Terry Burton & Henry Tremaine John & Robert Crouse founded the Company in 1901 with 75% of the needed capital from GE who was to remain a silent partner. A number of the small companies such as Sterling Electric The Economy Electric Co. and many others were able to use the labs set up by N.E.L.A. and within a few years had gained nearly 50% of the total lamp production in the United States. However in 1911 the U.S. Government brought an anti-trust suit against the N.E.L.A. and GE exercised their option to buy the remaining 25% and they officially all became part of General Electric forming the National Quality Lamp Division. See: Association Island’s History 2015; Nela Park: A brief early history -- Terry Management Style and Incandescent Lamp Advances. N.E.L.A., General Electric Corporation, paperback