Talk "Inventing Edison: How Americans Became a Nation of Inventors"
Instituto Franklin-UAH and the Embassy of the United States in Madrid join forces to explore one of the most transformative episodes in American history: the rise of electricity and the culture of invention that reshaped a nation. Through this talk discussion, both institutions provide a space for reflection and dialogue on how the technological past of the United States continues to illuminate its democratic identity today.
This conference uses the electrification of the United States as a guiding thread to examine the era in which Americans began to associate progress with technological change. Although electric light is often attributed exclusively to Thomas Edison, this transformation was actually the result of a much broader “culture of invention.” During the Gilded Age, Americans came to see themselves as citizens of a nation of inventors, where every new machine was an expression of democratic values.
12:00 p.m. Introductory remarks from the U.S. Embassy and the Instituto Franklin-UAH
12:10 p.m. Remarks from Dr. Ernest Freeberg
12:40 p.m. Open Discussion
1:00 p.m. Event Concludes
Date: Wednesday, June 10th, 2026.
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Location: U.S. Embassy in Spain (Calle de Serrano, 7528006 Madrid, España).
Private event by invitation only
Attendance at this event is by invitation only. If you would like to receive the registration form, please contact us at laura.rey@institutofranklin.net.
Admission to the event requires valid identification (ID card, passport, or other valid official identification document). Backpacks are not permitted. Electronic devices are prohibited, with the exception of cell phones.
Dr. Ernest Freeberg has pursued a broad research agenda on 19th- and 20th-century cultural and intellectual history in the U.S. In 2013 he published The Age of Edison, which examines how electric light shaped the development of modern American culture. His first book, The Education of Laura Bridgman, explores the philosophical and religious controversies raised by the education of the first deaf-blind person to learn language. The book won the American Historical Association’s Dunning Prize. In 2020 he published A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of Animal Rights in America, which examines the post-Civil War anti-cruelty movement, a milestone in Americans’ relationship with animals. He is currently completing a history of retirement in America, to be published by Penguin Press in 2027. Freeberg was educated at Middlebury College and received his Ph.D. from Emory University. At the University of Tennessee he chaired the History Department and was a Distinguished Professor of Humanities. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. He retired in 2025 and now lives in the state of Maine.
