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A dentist, Hicks will be remembered more for his unusual collection. "He was the kind of guy who never met a lightbulb he didn't like," says Harold D. Wallace of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. "In terms of numbers, his may very well be the largest collection in the world." Hicks collected more than 75,000 bulbs, including one of the first bulbs from the Statue of Liberty's torch, and displayed them in his free, private museum in Baltimore, Md. His fascination with light bulbs started early. "My grandmother always told the story that he didn't want to play with toys when he was a baby, so she put a lightbulb in his crib and he began playing with it," his daughter Frances said. His collection includes a 4'-tall, 50,000 watt bulb, a dashboard light from the Enola Gay, and a headlight from Hitler's Mercedes. The collection had 6,000 visitors per year. Hicks died May 14 from a heart attack in Baltimore. He was 79.
From This is True for 12 May 2002
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