Just wanted to point out that there were no AC generators before Tesla
Galileo Ferraris experimented with induction motors at the same time as Tesla (independently) and published a paper describing the devices he made two months before Tesla got his patent. Who really came up with the idea first is not a matter of record but only of what one or the other claims as to be dates when this was going on, there is no way of any kind to 'prove' who came up with the idea first, and the discoveries occurred so close together that at the time they're essentially isolated events. It also doesn't matter because it proves the point that two people can come up with the same answer, and the reason they did this is because they learned from what was becoming available at the time manufacturing wise and were able to experiment.
At that time the world was a very small place so the entire premise that one could have stolen it from the other is absurd and no one would even suggest that, they both came up with it at the same time in different countries.
Please note these were separate unrelated discoveries of the same thing and there are others like this as well through history, it just goes to show that the father of the induction motor is safely a grey area that can not be truly determined, if Tesla had not existed and he wasn't such a personality Ferraris would have gotten that title, and science would have advanced just fine. Please feel free to look more into the matter yourself.
Also while you're at it look up the work of
François Arago who discovered the properties of out of phase AC fields 32 years before Tesla, the basic science was already there, it was just awaiting a better time and more seeping in of the knowledge to come to the fruition that was the practical induction motor.
During this period of time there are MANY such cases of doubt about origins of some core discoveries because the world was just coming into the communication age, it was still a very big place (information wise) and physical sciences were advancing at such a rate that previous to the industrial age these things would not have been possible to discover in the first place, there was simply no infrastructure of material science to even create what was used to experiment with in the first place.
Now mind you I like Tesla! He did some of the grandest scale experiments in electricity known to man at the time, he definitely raised a lot of attention. He deserves being noted in science for the things he created and how he influenced the time, which albeit important he was not a major mover or shaker as to the commercialization. Westinghouse gets the credit for commercialization of AC, and Tesla got the cash for licensing the patents!
He also got an SI derived unit for magnetism named after him which is no small prize! But as Nigel stated I believe this most recent trend, at least in specific the Oatmeal comic, is udder propaganda and has no relation to what Tesla truly did. So I'd love to see people respond to why people think that Tesla was somehow slighted by history!
That being said I hope the Tesla museum gets all the funding it can and they provide a detailed and COMPLETE portrait of the main who's name is on the door, as well as increase learning an understanding of all sciences.
Tesla was a many layered human being and despite claims to the contrary that the world would still be living in the 19th century if Tesla hadn't come along is sadly mistaken, the reason for the boon of his age is not only the people that were present at the time, but the state of physical sciences and manufacturing which was exploding at the time.
Even without Tesla, Edison would have failed at his goals of widespread DC power, anyone knowing much about power transmissions knows that DC has limited usability for local distribution with large scales, and LOTS of problems with load and conversion which can't be fixed, though I believe some long range power grids still use it in modern times because of DC's advantages.
Don't forget who discovered the EM induction effect in the first place... Faraday and Henry, in 1831 25 years before Tesla was even born!
No one 'including myself' is discounting anything that Tesla did, the man knew how to build big thinds and blow minds (and I'm sure lots of other things
up but he has not been slighted by history and he was not NEARLY as important to the furthering of electrical science as the claims that are currently being made, many of which are in contradiction to known historic fact.