Molly Behan - response to Electrifying Manhattan

I watched an American Experience video clip about Thomas Edison’s quest to bring lights to Manhattan. I thought that the video did an especially good job of relating the relevant historical aspects of this story through its use of documents such as video, photo, quotes, and other primary documents.

One part of the clip that especially caught my attention was the video in the beginning. The video was one that was taken in Manhattan around the time that Edison was attempting to introduce light, during the 1880s. This video clip did an excellent job of capturing the hustle and bustle of the city, a feature of Manhattan that made introducing electricity so difficult. I thought that the video was especially important because it had sound, which made me realize just how busy and hectic the city was. 

Another part of the clip that furthered the telling of Edison’s story was the use of photographs, both of the city and of Edison himself. I thought that the original photographs of the city served the same purpose as the aforementioned videos did; they showed what Manhattan was really like at this time, and they showed what kind of city Edison was really dealing with. Another photograph that the clip returned to multiple times was one of Edison himself. I thought that this photograph, and the fact that it appeared multiple times, showed that the feat of electrifying the city was not just a great step for the nation, but also a great step for an individual inventor, Thomas Edison. The fact that the director of this clip emphasized his portrait demonstrates the personal significance that the project held for Edison.  

I also really liked the fact that this clip included primary documents such as pages from Edison’s personal plans and journals. Even though the camera panned over them too quickly for me to read what they said, they still gave me the idea about how exhausting this project truly was; the pages that the clip showed were filled with scribbles and notes, and they looked very confusing and complicated. I think that this also demonstrated to me how amazing of a feat the electrification of Manhattan was; out of all of those incoherent scribbles and thoughts came the lighting of one of the biggest cities in the world. The notebooks helped to demonstrate this point very well. 

Finally, I really liked the music in the story. It was very upbeat, and it gave me the feeling that, in the end, Edison’s journey ended up being successful. I think that this choice of music was particularly important because the words that the narrator was saying were not always that encouraging. He often talked about the trials that Edison had to go through to install the world’s first electrical grid. The narrator mentioned how long the project took, and how many technical difficulties Edison and his team ran into. But, because the music was so positive and upbeat, I felt optimistic that they would succeed in the end, which they did.