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Charles Lorenzo Clarke Papers, 1780-1987, n.d. (bulk 1870-1942)
5.0
linear feet.
Catalog Number:
M32
Series List:
- Correspondence, 1874-1964, n.d., 0.5 linear feet
- Documents, 1870-1942, n.d., 0.25 linear feet
- Images, 1893-1937, n.d., 0.75 linear feet
- Writings, 1914-1937, n.d., 1.0 linear feet
- Memorabilia, 1780-1987, n.d., 0.25 linear feet
- Clippings, 1886-1956, n.d., 0.75 linear feet
- Printed Material, 1880-1960, n.d., 1.0 linear feet
- Scrapbooks, 1868-1941, n.d., 7 volumes
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Agency History / Biographical Note:
Charles Lorenzo Clarke (1853-1941) was present when Thomas Alva Edison opened
the Pearl Street station in New York, the world's first electric generating
plant, which supplied current for the operation of Edison's elecric lamps.
Born on April 16, 1853, to Daniel and Mary Lewis (Bragg) Clarke, Charles
Clarke grew up in Portland, Maine, attending Portland High School. He then
worked as an assistant engineer with the Boston & Maine railroad, which ran
between Portland and Boston. He was graduated from Bowdoin College in
1875. On February 1, 1880, Clarke became an assistant to Thomas Edison in
his laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey. He was later made chief engineer of
Edison Electric Light Co. in New York City. When Edison moved his plant to
Schenectady in 1886, Clarke followed and continued to consult and work for
General Electric (formerly Edison General Electric Company) until he retired
on November 1, 1931. Clarke was the author of Diagonal Functions and
their Operation (1937) and various papers, including "Edison's Electric
Railway" (Van Nostrand's Eng. Mag., 1880), "Electric Motor Diagrams" (Elec.
Eng., 1889), and "High Frequency Oscillatory and Pulsatory Dischory
Discharges" (Trans. Amer. Electrotherapeutic Assoc., 1904). Clarke was
married three times and had four children: John Curtis, Mary Willatowski,
Daniel William, and Charles Lorenzo, Jr. Charles Lorenzo Clarke died on
October 9, 1941, in Newton, Massachusetts.
Scope and Content:
The collection consists of material by and concerning Charles Lorenzo Clarke,
including: correspondence, with the bulk to and from family members;
documents, such as Clarke's Bowdoin College Master of Science and Civil
Engineering degrees; writings; and images, including photographs of the
Clarke family, photographs of Japanese engineers and their families, and an
album with postcards of Errol, New Hampshire. Also included are newspaper
clippings, many concerning Thomas Edison; printed material, the bulk
regarding General Electric; memorabilia, featuring colonial and Confederate
currency; and scrapbooks, which include pencil drawings by Clarke.
Cite as:
Charles Lorenzo Clarke Papers, George J. Mitchell Department of Special
Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library.
Access Restrictions:
None.
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