'Edison's Last Breath'—Weirdest Artifact at The Henry Ford Museum

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan is home to millions of artifacts, objects, photographs, and documents. And while not all of these items are shown, approximately 20,000 are out on display at any given time. Among those 20,000 artifacts on display to the public, there's one that has to be the weirdest.

Artifacts at The Henry Ford Museum

It you've spent any time at The Henry Ford Museum or Greenfield Village, you know that it's taken great time, care, and dedication to collect and/or recreate things from the past. But the weirdest artifact on display cannot be recollected or recreated, and here's why:

The weirdest item on display has to be 'Edison's Last Breath'.

You read that correctly... Edison, as in Thomas Edison, famous inventor of the incandescent lightbulb, amongst many other things.

How does one, even a museum, come by someone's last breath? Here's how:

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Turns out, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were friends way back in the day, and Thomas Edison's son knew this. "During Edison's final illness, a rack of test tubes was close to his beside. Upon his death, Edison's son Charles has them sealed with paraffin wax," and sent one to Henry Ford.

Kristen Matthews TSM Lansing

I had no idea this even existed until a friend of mine told me about this. I feel like this is weird on a few levels. First, this seems like an interesting thing to do as someone is expiring; setting up test tubes to collect the air that happened to be in the room while they breathed their last breath. Secondly, it seems odd to send a vial of "dead person air" to said dead person's buddy. And thirdly, what a weird thing to look at, because honestly, you're looking at what appears to be an empty vial.

Of course, this is all my opinion. And for that matter, you could think that there's something way weirder at The Henry Ford Museum. Regardless, if you want to see for yourself, you'll have to plan a trip to The Henry Ford Museum!

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