OWNER OF WORLD'S LARGEST LIGHT BULB COLLECTION PASSES AWAY

A Baltimore dentist who housed what is believed to be the world's largest collection died on May 7, 2002, at the age of 79. Dr. Hugh Francis Hicks, creator and curator of the Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting, maintained a collection that included more than 75,000 bulbs, about 10,000 of which he exhibited in the basement museum he started in 1964. Hicks' collection of light bulbs ran the entire lighting spectrum, from the first bulbs manufactured by Thomas Edison, to the original torch of the Statue of Liberty to headlamps from the Mercedes Benz limousines of Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler to today's energy-saving lamps. According to a New York Times article, Hicks regularly told visitors to his free, private museum that his was the only collection in the world containing an uninterrupted history of the light bulb.