Speaking at a U.S. Capitol dedication ceremony for a statue of the prolific inventor from tiny Milan, Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recalled Edison's time working in a Kentucky telegraph office.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi likened Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, to Menlo Park, California: ground zero for Silicon Valley's innovation.
State leaders said that Edison - whose patents included the the phonograph and the first practical incandescent light bulb - exemplifies Ohio's entrepreneurial spirit. Other finalists for the honor included the Wright Brothers, Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, Harriet Beacher Stowe, and former president Ulysses S. Grant.
In this statue, sculptor Alan Cottrill depicts a middle-aged Edison wearing a typical work suit, standing in a relaxed position with a bent right knee, and holding aloft the invention for which he is most widely celebrated—the electric light bulb. Assuming his characteristic stance with his left hand in his pocket, he raises the inverted cone-shaped bulb known as the Edison light bulb in his right hand; a similar bulb appears in a 1911 photograph of Edison.
The pose evokes the Statue of Liberty. Above all, Cottrill sought to capture Edison's "energy and sense of accomplishment," aiming to convey his tireless activity. The bronze statue, inscribed EDISON on its self-base, stands on a speckled mahogany-colored granite pedestal with the simple inscription OHIO.
