Cade Museum Opens Illuminating New Exhibit Inviting Visitors to Relive the Age of Electricity

Gainesville, FL—February 2, 2023
Last year, the Cade Museum invited visitors to “Wander the Milky Way”. Beginning in early February, guests can travel back in time to investigate how electricity shapes our lives with a brand-new museum theme called, “Latimer, Edison, Tesla: The Age of Electricity”.

From the 1870s through the 1890s, Thomas Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, patented some of the most important inventions of the modern age, including the light bulb, sound recording, and motion pictures. The late 19th century saw tremendous change and the rise of a new kind of American icon: the Inventor.

The “Age of Electricity” gives visitors the opportunity to meet the brave and creative inventors who wired our world and encourages them to tinker, design, and traverse their way across the turn of the 20th century.

The museum rotunda will feature the new hands-on exhibit, “Lewis Latimer: Lighting the Way”, where guests will walk through the life of Lewis Latimer, an inventor who changed the way the world viewed electric light. Latimer’s self-made story demonstrates how he helped bring incandescent lighting to the masses, first by wedging his way into patent drafting to eventually inventing ground-breaking changes to light bulb filaments, landing him a spot in Thomas Edison’s electric company. Excerpts from Lewis Latimer’s diary give guests a glimpse into the mind of a man who is immortalized in history for his inventions, all while overcoming the challenges faced with being an African American inventor in the height of Jim Crow America.
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For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Cademuseum.org.

About the Cade Museum
The mission of the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida, is to transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. Named after Mary Cade and her husband, Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, the project has been spearheaded by their daughter, Phoebe Cade Miles, and her husband, Richard Miles, since 2006. They encourage the development of innovation ecosystems through the Cade Prize for Innovation, the Cade's proprietary Innovation Education learning framework, and the 21,000-square-foot hands-on learning museum that promotes the development of an inventive mindset which the Cade calls Inventivity™. The Cade believes every person should have access to the right to invent and innovate inherent in America’s DNA and works diligently in outreach efforts to bring this understanding to all, with an emphasis on the underserved. To learn more, visit cademuseum.org.
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