John R. Crouse and the Society for Electrical Development [Scanning the Past]

The tradition of the electric lighting of a US national Christmas tree at the White House grounds began on Christmas eve of 1923 when President Coolidge closed a switch that illuminated approximately 2000 electric lights distributed on a 60-ft tree from his native Vermont. The event had been conceived and was sponsored by an organization known as the Society for Electrical Development (SED), which had been founded shortly before World War I. The combination of the ancient ritual of the Christmas tree with the modern electric light represented a curious synthesis of a symbol from the natural world with a symbol of the technological world. John R. Crouse of Cleveland, OH, led the effort that culminated in the founding of the SED in 1913, a decade before the first lighting of the national tree. A biography of John R. Crouse is given highlighting his professional achievements.