David Sarnoff (1891-1971) was a businessman who was a pioneer in the development of American radio and television broadcast communications. Sarnoff was president of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), one of the country’s leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products.

The David Sarnoff Library was established at the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey in 1967, to house his private papers and focus on his contributions to the communications and electronics industries. The collections developed further with the acquisition of papers of former RCA executives, scientists, and engineers. However, the Sarnoff Corporation closed the library in 2009, following the onset of the Great Recession. Hagley obtained the Sarnoff collection records shortly thereafter. The College of New Jersey obtained the museum objects.