Oberlin and Edison

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the country.

In 1844, Oberlin College graduated its first black student, George B. Vashon, who became one of the founding professors at Howard University and the first black lawyer admitted to the Bar in New York State.
It is also the oldest continuously operating coeducational institution, since having admitted four women in 1837. These four women were the first to enter as full students. Mary Jane Patterson graduated in 1862 to become the first black woman to earn a B.A. degree.

One historian called Oberlin "the town that started the Civil War" due to its reputation as a hotbed of abolitionism. Oberlin was a key stop along the Underground Railroad. In 1858, both students and faculty were involved in the rescue of a fugitive slave, which received national press coverage.

In 1970, Oberlin made the cover of Life as one of the first colleges in the country to have co-ed dormitories.
Many accomplishments made by this little Ohio College!

I stopped in Milan (MY-lan), Ohio, for a look at Tom Edison's home still held by his descendents, and hometown.

For the most part the neighborhood still looks like the 19th century.

Edison's record player is demonstrated.

This is a photo of Thomas Edison, age 14, 1861 (the year the Civil War began), working as a newsboy and candy butcher for the Grand Trunk Railroad in Michigan. (A candy butcher is a concessionaire hawking sweets on trains and circuses. It was a popular profession for young boys who were strong, outgoing and savvy.)