Handwritten draft questionnaire in pencil, signed with his 'umbrella' signature, "Thos. A. Edison," on the reverse of a 5 x 7.25 dinner menu from the Yama Farms Inn, an exclusive Catskill resort. Edison writes: "What are some good questions for a General Information Question[n]aire. Who wrote Don Quixote / What is distance from NY to Buffalo / What is a German Mind / Where is Antwerp / What Cerial [sic] is used the most by Man. / What is the Taj Mahal / What part of the US is below the sea level / Where in USA is best cotton raised." In fine condition. Accompanied by a print showing Edison and his famous friends at the Yama Farms Inn.
By the early 1920s, Edison, frustrated by the lack of knowledge of college graduates seeking employment at his company, made up questionnaires to test job applicants, usually a series of 150 questions tailored to the position for which they were applying. Some were industry specific, some general knowledge, while others were rather obscure. About 35% of the job seekers passed with his satisfactory score of at least 90%. When several rejected applicants complained to the press, Edison refused to release his questionnaires but magazines started running 'Edison pop quizzes,' and rival employers conducted their own employment quizzes.
Frank Seaman, a New York advertising executive, transformed his Napanoch, New York summer home into the Yama Farms Inn in 1913, which earned a reputation as a well-regarded, exclusive Catskill resort catering to industrialists who were the greatest thinkers of their age. Yama Farms was so exclusive that guests could only visit on Seamen's personal invitation; among his regulars were Thomas Edison, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, George Eastman, and Harvey Firestone. The Inn remained in operation until Frank Seaman died in 1939. For Edison, it represented one of the few times where he could relax with his friends without the pressures of inventing every day—throughout Edison's lifetime, he amassed a record 1093 patents.
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