Edison Birthplace Museum gets grant for new education center

The Edison Birthplace Museum was awarded a 2024 Destination Development $50,000 grant from Shores and Islands Ohio to support its ongoing capital improvements drive to expand and enrich the museum experience with a new education center that includes exciting hands-on activities and rare Edison artifacts, according to a news release.

Extensive remodeling and renovation is underway at the Edison Birthplace Museum, 9 N. Edison Drive in Milan, to create a new exhibit space for visitors named in honor of the late Don Gfell, a former superintendent of the Edison Local Schools with a lifelong passion in educating and generating interest in the famous inventor with humble Milan beginnings, the release said.

Gfell, who was instrumental in the exhaustive campaign to place a statue of Thomas Edison in the U.S. Capitol, amassed an extraordinary personal collection of Edison antiquities over decades, some of which will be publicly displayed for the first time when the Don Gfell Education Center opens later this year, according to the release.

The Shores and Islands grant money is awarded annually to Erie and Ottawa County organizations and businesses for the purpose of boosting developing projects that will engage communities and to further promote local tourism, the release said.

The new education center at the Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum aims to both reinvigorate community interest in its unique history and attract new visitors from near and far to see and learn about America’s most prolific innovator with engaging exhibits, hands-on displays, and more to immerse children and adults in the Edison brilliance, the release said.

With the Shores and Islands grant and the continued generosity of community members, the Birthplace Museum will make the memory of Gfell, Milan’s beloved educator and Edison booster, live on with an enriching educational resource and regional treasure, according to the release.

Donations allow it to happen, the release said.

Contribute at www.tomedison.org or send checks payable to Edison Birthplace Association to PO Box 451, Milan, Ohio 44846.