Paul B. Israel

Background

Paul B. Israel was born on January 30, 1953.

Education

After Paul Israel joined the staff of the Edison Papers, he earned his Ph.D. in history from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Career

A former Californian, Dr. Israel came East more than three decades ago to do research for a book on Thomas Edison and the electric light. Today he is the Director and General Editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers.

The Edison Papers provides leadership in publishing and developing the documentary legacy of America’s most prolific inventor and innovator. The documents include the writings, drawings, and business records of Edison. To date, the project has produced eight volumes of The Papers of Thomas A. Edison as well as an online edition with nearly 200,000 document images. The Edison Papers are also working to advance the Edisonian legacy through interdisciplinary initiatives in young and higher education. In 2005 the Edison Papers received a special retrospective Eugene S. Ferguson Prize from the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) as an outstanding and original reference works that will support future scholarship in the history of technology. This unique retrospective award was given to the Edison Papers as a model work published since the founding of SHOT in 1958.

Dr. Israel is a frequent consultant and contributor to projects seeking material about Edison and invention, including nearly thirty television and radio documentaries. He has also been involved in developing or revising exhibits and interpretive programs at several museums and historic sites, including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, and the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park. In addition, he has given numerous public lectures on Edison. Dr. Israel also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the history of technology and innovation.

Achievements

• Scholar Paul Israel has made the study of American invention and inventors his specialty. In 2000, SHOT awarded Dr. Israel the prestigious Dexter Prize for Edison: A Life of Invention (John Wiley & Sons, 1998).

Works

More photos

• book

  • From Machine Shop to Industrial Laboratory

    (Telegraphy and the Changing Context of American Invention...)

    1992
  • Edison: A Life of Invention 1998
  • Edison's Electric Light 2010