Book Commemorating the Vagabonds Trip of 1916, Signed by Vagabond Members Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs

Between 1915 and 1924, inventor Thomas Edison, automobile tycoons Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs, calling themselves the Vagabonds, embarked on a series of summer camping trips. The idea was initiated in 1914 when Ford and Burroughs visited Edison in Florida and toured the Everglades. The notion blossomed the next year when Ford, Edison and Firestone were in California for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. They visited Luther Burbank and then drove from Riverside to San Diego. In 1916, Edison invited Ford, Burroughs and Harvey Firestone to journey through the New England Adirondacks and Green Mountains; Ford, however, was unable to join the group. In 1918, Ford, Edison, Firestone, his son Harvey, Burroughs, and Robert DeLoach of the Armour Company, caravanned through the mountains of West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Subsequent trips were made in 1919 to the Adirondacks and New England; in 1920 to John Burroughs’ home and cabin retreat into the Catskill Mountains; in 1921 to West Virginia and northern Michigan; and in 1923 to northern Michigan. In 1924, the group journeyed to northern Michigan by train, gathered again at Henry and Clara Ford’s Wayside Inn in Massachusetts, and visited President Coolidge at his home in Vermont.

The trips were well organized and equipped. There were several heavy passenger cars and vans to carry the travelers, household staff, and equipment; photographers also accompanied the group.

This is a relic of one of the trips, a book with the cover reading “Commemorating our Vacation Trip of 1916, August 28th to September 9th”. Ford was not there, so the book pictures Edison, Burroughs and Firestone. The introduction reads, “Greetings: To Our Friends–Mr. Edison made plans for a Vacation Camping Party, including beside himself, Mr. John Burroughs, Mr. H.S Firestone and Mr. Henry Ford (who we regret was unavoidably prevented from being with us.) As a little diary of this trip, which proved so enjoyable to all of us, we are sending this book to our friends who we think will be interested in the events of those two weeks in August and September 1916.” This introduction is signed by Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone.

The book itself contains photographs and drawings of the three men at the sites of their vacation, and includes poems and sayings, such as “On a man’s porch is written his mind, If his heart be warm and his way be kind, Inviting, repelling, accepting, aloof – Your welcome is writ under the old Porch roof.”

This is the first Vagabond-signed memento of one of their famous trips that we have had in some time. It is indeed a fascinating combination of names. Of this book, Edward F. O’Keefe, the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, has written: “This unusual book appealed to me as a historian and writer because of the surprising links between so many great entrepreneurs, naturalists, and politicians of the early twentieth century. I write in The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt that Thomas Edison said of TR in 1916 that he ‘is absolutely the only man that should be considered [for the presidency] at this crucial point.’ Edison backed TR’s independent run in 1912 and used the emerging technology of the time — recorded sound — to help the candidate he backed. The history of Roosevelt and John Burroughs is more storied and well-known than the connection between America’s great inventor and TR. My favorite story of TR and Burroughs comes from their trip to Yellowstone in 1903. Believe it or not, the President and the naturalist went skiing. Burroughs wrote: ‘At the President’s suggestion, he and I raced on our skis down those inclines. We had only to stand up straight, and let gravity do the rest. As we were going swiftly down the side of one of the hills, I saw out of the corner of my eye the President taking a header into the snow … I kept straight on, and very soon the laugh was on me, for the treacherous snow sank beneath me, and I took a header, too.’ When I saw this book — a commemoration of a road trip involving two inventors and a naturalist — it reminded me of this story which for me personalizes these distant figures. They were human — with foibles, a sense of humor, and adventure. What a profound way to remind us all that our heroes are made of flesh and blood.”

This comes with a second book signed entitled, “To you who attended the Homestead Dinner”, a 1914 event that was the precursor of the Vagabonds. It is signed by Harvey Firestone. Dated Columbiana, Ohio, July 11, 1914, Firestone’s message reads, “Believing that you really did enjoy that day. Here are a few pictures and verses as a souvenir. Of course I realize that this occasion meant much more in sentiment to me than to you. To me it was more than a reunion of friends and fellow workers it was a meeting of past and present-of boyish play and manhoods work. But I believe that to you, also. it had a sentimental value which will make it good to look back on. It was a reunion at the board of fellowship. It was a chance to gel better acquaint ed and rub elbows as comrades as well as coworkers. I only hope that your recollections of the day may be somewhere near as pleasant as mine and so this booklet goes to you as a reminder with the Best Wishes of Yours Faithfully, H. Firestone.”