Finding Aids

Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was incorporated in 1919, entered the broadcasting field in July 1921 and shortly thereafter began to sell home broadcasting equipment manufactured by GE and Westinghouse. The collection consists of photographs and negatives relating to Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the Victor Talking Machine Company, which was purchased by RCA in 1929, and the RCA-Victor Division of Radio Corporation of America.

For over fifty years the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. This collection contains the records from the Secretary's Office of the Victor Talking Machine Company and its successors RCA Victor Company, Inc., and Radio Corporation of America's RCA Victor Division. They consist of minutes of the Executive and Management Committees, an internal annual report and two contract files for supplying sound equipment to movie studios.

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was chartered in 1846 to completing an all-rail road across the state. Collection consists of three unidentified photographs of stone arched railroad bridges, probably on the Pennsylvania railroad.

Collectors of railroad memorabilia often also collected postcards. Railroad postcards generally picture stations, engines, bridges, route scenery, railcar interiors, and accidents. Some collectors sought specific railroads. This collection is over a thousand postcards related to railroads. The collection has been arranged into two series: Railroad stations and Railroad cars and trains. This is an artificial collection assembled from various donors.

Ralph Mosser Barnes (1900-1984) was an American industrial engineer who was a pioneer in motion and time study applications. This collection consists of four films showing a selection of studies that were managed or designed by Barnes.

William Gouverneur Ramsay (1866-1916) was a civil engineer for railroads and explosives corporations, including Repauno Chemical Company, Great Northern, and DuPont Company. His wife, Caroline “Lena” Johnston Canby (1872-1958) was interested in cultural and educational institutions and traveled extensively. The Ramsay family papers primarily consist of William G. Ramsay's personal and business papers, as well as his family's personal papers which primarily consist of correspondence, much of it between William Ramsay and Lena Ramsay prior to and after their marriage. the letters describe social life in Wilmington, literature, courtship and marriage, household administration, family life, child rearing and health.

Ransome Airlines, Pan Am Express (PAE), and Trans World Express (TWE) are predecessor and successor domestic airline companies. Ransome Airlines was a regional commuter service that operated between 1967 and 1986. Pan American World Airways acquired Ransome Airlines in April 1986 and renamed the company Pan Am Express. It operated domestic routes for the first time in the parent company's history. When Pan American World Airways went bankrupt in 1991, their wholly owned subsidiary was purchased by Trans World Airlines and became Trans World Express. It continued to fly domestic routes until 1995. This collection of Ransome Airlines, Pan Am Express, and Trans World Express records documents the three airlines from the initial establishment, through each transition, to the final dissolution. While not a complete company archive, the records provide a representative and detailed view of high-level operations at Ransome Airlines, PAE, and TWE through the activities of various executives. The collection contains the papers of five company presidents, three directors of finance, two directors of public relations, one director of personnel, one director of planning and administration, and one member of the accounting department. It will be of high research value to aviation historians interested in the effects of deregulation, aircraft acquisitions, financial planning, company mergers and transitions, and bankruptcy. The collection will also interest labor historians involved in collective bargaining research.

Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) was one of the most well know industrial designers during the middle decades of the twentieth century. This collections consist of the Loewy's personal papers, business records, and materials generated and maintained by Loewy's New York Public Relations Department.

Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) was one of the most well known industrial designers during the middle decades of the twentieth century. In 1934, he signed a contract with the Pennsylvania Railroad that launched a two-decade relationship with the "Standard Railroad of the World." Loewy's work for the Pennsy did much to establish his reputation as the leading figure in the century's most noteworthy American design style: streamlining. This collection consists of twelve presentation renderings executed in tempera on illustration board. The mats bear Loewy's signature, although the work was actually executed by others. The renderings generally conform, with slight variations, to photographs that show the work as actually built.

Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) was one of the most well know industrial designers during the middle decades of the twentieth century. This collection is composed of images of design work Loewy and his firm conducted for corporate American and foreign clients; Loewy's personal photographs; and his speeches and interviews.

Raymond Lowey (1893–1986) began his career in America as a fashion illustrator before moving into industrial design. These are reproductions of advertisements copied from Vogue magazine for Bonwit Teller, Saks Fifth Avenue, Delman Shoe Salon and I. Miller shoe stores, and Kayser textiles and hosiery.

Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) was one of the most well known industrial designers during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Transportation, particularly automobiles, was always one of Loewy's passions. This is an interior design rendering for a Greyhound bus. The drawing was produced by an unidentified artist in Raymond Loewy's office, not by Loewy himself.

Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) was one of the most well know industrial designers during the middle decades of the twentieth century. This collection consists of two sets of eight lithographs and one serigraph designed by Raymond Loewy, and printed at The American Atelier in New York City. Prints are generally transportation-themed, and show products created by Loewy's design firm.

Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) was one of the most well know industrial designers during the middle decades of the twentieth century. The collection documents Loewy's product designs and includes advertisements, postcards, product brochures, publications, photographs, and artifacts.

The RCA Astro-Electronics Division (AED) led RCA’s research and development efforts in space technology from the beginning of the space race to the acquisition of RCA by GE in 1986. The records consist primarily of the papers of scientists Bert Sheffield, Max Mesner, and Charles Vose documenting RCA’s pioneering research. In addition, the Art Gompper Astro Print Shop collection provides insight into the administrative and promotional side of AED.

The RCA Camden plant was originally established under the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1907. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America acquired the Victor Talking Machine Company and soon made Camden the center of its own research, development, and manufacturing. Camden remained the company's primary advanced development site until GE acquired RCA in 1986. The records document RCA’s work in the space program, electron microscopy, nuclear fusion, and other fields through research records, correspondence, reports, photographs and films.

For over fifty years the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. The Radio Corporation of America was incorporated in Delaware on October 17, 1919, and changed its name to RCA Corporation on May 9, 1969. This collection is primarily made up of moving images and sound recordings collected by the David Sarnoff Research Library relating to the RCA corporation dating from 1953 to 2009. There is a set of photographs related to the Nippon Television Network and two photograph albums, one of 30 Rockefeller Center and the other containing waveform and photo-radio equipment. This collection is organized into eight series: Broadcast programming, Communications, Events, History, Meetings, Popular recordings, Reference materials, and Nippon Television Network.

RCA’s plant in Harrison, New Jersey was (originally founded in 1882) was acquired by RCA in 1930 and was the company's primary producer of receiving tubes for consumer, industrial, and defense electronics until the plant closed in 1976. The records consist primarily of the papers of engineers Ralph R. Fichtl (1918-2014) and Otto H. Schade, Sr. (1903-1981) on television and receiving tube development. Files include reports, ephemera, photographs, patents, and correspondence on their work and RCA Harrison in general.

RCA Institute, Inc. was an electronics school and subsidiary of the RCA Corporation, one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. The school specialized in basic electronics and electronics technology; computer technology; and courses for radio, television, and air‐conditioning servicing, as well as its traditional courses in amateur radio‐operator skills. These two educational instructional manuals were bound together. One focuses on RF-I transmitters, while the other concerns RF-II receivers. The laboratory manuals were intended to be guides for students at the RCA Institute in their work in the laboratory. They include questions and experiments to correlate to classroom lectures and practical work. The manuals' copyright dates are 1945 and 1946.

Ralph Pedi (1906-1992) was an Italian tenor soloist and recording artist. For more than fifty years, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. This item is a recording contract between Pedi and RCA Manufacturing Co. for six recorded selections.

The Missile and Surface Radar Division (MSRD) of the Radio Corporation of America operated as a primary government and military defense contractor from 1953 to 1986, developing and implementing advanced radar systems. The photographs in the collection depict instrumentation, radar equipment, control equipment, and research facilities at both the MSRD and the Navy AEGIS Combat System Engineering Deveopment Site in Moorestown, New Jersey.

The RCA News and Information Department served a public affairs role for RCA corporate headquarters at Rockefeller Center in New York City. The collection contains photographs and negatives created or commissioned by RCA that document much of RCA’s history and activities. Many of the photographs were organized by the News and Information Department into subjects that cover the history of radio, television, communications, and consumer electronics, with a particular emphasis on RCA”s role in that history. Additional photographs are grouped by RCA division and document their specific achievements, with the RCA laboratories being especially prominent. This collection also contains a large number of photographic negatives that were taken by the public relations firm, Carl Byoir & Associates, which showcase many of RCA’s products, events, and facilities.

The Radio Corporation of America (renamed RCA Corporation in 1969) was best known for its pioneering radio and television development and manufacturing. In addition to consumer electronics, RCA was a major player in the development of electronics for industrial and military applications. The collection contains extensive documentation of RCA’s consumer and industrial products and components. Files include manuals, technical data, advertisements, technical bulletins, catalogs, and training materials.

The Radio Corporation of America (renamed RCA Corporation in 1969) was best known for its pioneering radio and television development and manufacturing. In addition to consumer electronics, RCA was a major player in the development of electronics for industrial and military applications. The collection contains promotional and technical publications, including brochures, scientific journal articles, and serials; which document the activities of RCA and its successors.

The Radio Corporation of America (renamed RCA Corporation in 1969) was a major American electronics company founded in 1919. RCA dominated electronics and communications for over fifty years. RCA Rocky Point Station was built as a communication hub known as Radio Central. Radio Central was the largest radio station in the world at one time, and its primary focus was intercontinental communications. This collection documents the activities of RCA Rocky Point Station, including its construction plans, blueprints, reports, and files relating to antenna data and calculations, building systems information, and radio propagation. Rocky Point Station was in operation from 1921 to 1978. This collection would be useful to researchers interested in RCA communications, early radio broadcasting, radio engineering, and radio propagation.

The RCA Solid State Division (SSD) was responsible for leading RCA’s research, development, and manufacturing in semiconductors, integrated circuits, and optoelectronics. The records consist of the papers of scientists and administrators from the division’s facilities in Somerville, New Jersey and Findlay, Ohio.

The Radio Corporation of America (renamed RCA Corporation in 1969) was best known for its pioneering radio and television development and manufacturing. In addition to consumer electronics, RCA was a major player in the development of electronics for industrial and military applications. The RCA technical reports contain thousands of detailed scientific reports on RCA’s research and development in electronics. Most were created for internal use, but contract proposals and reports for nearly 700 different contract projects are also included.

For over fifty years the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. The records of the RCA Corporation consist of three series: Secretary's files; B.L. Aldridge files; and the Camden Technical Library files. The collection is largely RCA technical reports, standards, engineering notebooks, manuals and miscellaneous publications. The Secretary's files document the formation of RCA. Aldridge's files deal almost entirely with the history of the Victor Talking Machine Company, RCA-Victor and the Camden Plant.

The Radio Corporation of America (RCA)’s Picture Tube Division, later known as the Video Component and Display Division, was headquartered at a research and production facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1987, the French firm Thomson Consumer Electronics acquired RCA’s consumer electronics business, including the Lancaster plant, and operated the facility until Thomson shut down its consumer electronics operations in 2005. Materials in the collection document a diverse array of activities at the RCA/Thomson Lancaster plant between the facility’s early days of operation and its closure. Corporate memoranda, correspondence, product technical data, photographs, and audiovisual materials trace the development of RCA/Thomson’s picture tube product line. Corporate publications chronicle major moments in company history.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871 as the Excelsior Enterprise Company, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals, and coal mines assembled by its predecessor, Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, between 1833 and 1896. The records are a fragmentary group from the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company; its successor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company; and its subsidiary, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company. They are primarily registers of employees and wage rates for employees in the Reading, Pennsylvania, repair shops of all three companies.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871 as the Excelsior Enterprise Company, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The Reading Company employment and real estate records comprise a largely incomplete and extremely fragmentary synthetic collection of material related to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company and its successors. The collection comprises incomplete employment records largely dating from the first half of the twentieth century, records related to the employee pension program and the Relief Association, a small amount of contracts, and deeds and agreements reflecting the company's process of land acquisition following initial main line construction in the 1830s and through to the early twentieth century.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coalmines assembled between 1833 and 1896 by its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. The collection consists of photographs [negatives, blueprints and other graphic materials relating to the Reading Company and its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled between 1833 and 1896 by its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. The collection consists of graphic materials relating to the Reading Company and its predecessor, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company

Chartered in 1871, Reading Company was the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The collection consists of the corporate records of the Reading Company (1871-1976), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company (1833-1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (1896-1923), and 159 predecessors and subsidiaries.

The Reading Company owned, leased or held a controlling interest in rail lines throughout southeastern and central Pennsylvania, with branches stretching as far north as Scranton and as far west as Williamsport and Shippensburg. The collections consists of twenty-five photographs of overnight accommodations (including rest houses and company sponsored Y.M.C.A. buildings) which provided accommodations for Reading Railroad employees at various end-of-the-line locations.

The Reading Stove Works manufactured stoves, furnaces, and heaters. The collection includes Board of Directors minutes and sales and financial statements document the history of the company.

The Reading Terminal was a train station serving passenger trains in Philadelphia from 1893 until 1984. This calendar was produced by the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society. It is illustrated with archival photographs from a variety of published and private sources.

Rebecca Pennock Lukens (1794-1854) owned and managed the iron and steel mill known as Lukens Steel Company from 1825 until 1849. Studio portrait of Rebecca Lukens copied as a carte-de-visite.

The Rust Craft Publishing Company published greeting cards. The company was founded by Frederick Winslow Rust (circa 1877-1949) in Kansas City, Missouri in 1906. Rust is attributed with creating some of the first greeting cards in America. This collection consists of a folder containing sixteen recipe cards for picnic lunches. The items were published by Rust Craft in Boston, Massachusetts in 1915.

The Radio Corporation of America (renamed RCA Corporation in 1969) was best known for its pioneering radio and television development and manufacturing. In addition to consumer electronics, RCA was a major player in the development of electronics for industrial and military applications. The Records of other RCA divisions include documentation of RCA's research and development before the Second World War, as well material from the famous patent dispute case Armstrong v. Radio Corporation of America and National Broadcasting Company.

This collection reflects material from a small amount of manufacturers operating in the Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey, largely in the early-to-mid 19th century. The records primarily include correspondence, bills, receipts, and accounts. There are also various legal papers and testimonies concerning suits involving land and water rights in Burlington County, New Jersey, with descriptions of miscellaneous dams, saw, grist, woolen, and fulling mills.

Red Arrow Lines, Inc. was a suburban transit company. This collection contains photographs of Red Arrow Lines transit vehicles and stations that were used in book R. DeGraw, Red Arrow Lines.

Regulator, or pendulum, clocks were commonplace within domestic settings during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This collection contains photographic prints of different style regulator clocks photographed in an unknown antique shop.

The Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Company was a manufacturer of cartridge ammunition for fire arms. This collection consists of copy photographs of Remington Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Company facilities in Bridgeport, Connecticut, including interiors of a laboratory and exteriors of various buildings.

Remington Rand, Inc. was a business machines manufacturer, most well-known for its typewriters. The Powers Accounting Machine Company was founded by inventor James L. Powers (1871-1926) in 1911. Powers firm was acquired by the newly formed Remington Rand, Inc. in 1927. This small collection consists of four advertisements for Powers tabulating equipment manufactured by Powers Accounting Machines, a Division of Remington Rand Inc.

"Rencourt" was the Wilmington, Delaware, home of Alexis Irénée du Pont (1843-1904) and his family. Pennsylvania architect Theophilus P. Chandler, Jr. (1845-1928) designed the house; it was built in 1890 and demolished in the 1950s. This collection includes plans of the main and second floors (ink on linen), plans and elevation of the stables (white-line blueprints), and plans of the gate (white-line blueprint).

Irene "Renee" Carpenter (1911-1991) was a descendant of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) who founded the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company with his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) in 1802. She was the second child of R.R.M. Carpenter (1877-1949) and Margaretta Lammot du Pont (1884-1973) and a granddaughter of Lammot du Pont (1831-1884). The collection contains miscellaneous letters and memorabilia collected by Draper from her ancestors and collateral relatives in the du Pont and Carpenter families.

DuPont Company Repauno Works manufactured high explosive dynamite. The company began as the Repauno Chemical Company on June 7, 1880, by Lammot du Pont (1831-1884), a chemist working for the family business, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company which originally produced gunpowder. This collection of photographs includes numerous views of the buildings, facilities, employees, and plant operations and activities.

Resources for Women (RFW) was a consulting company founded by Sarah W. Risher (1941-2019) that provided training programs to government agencies through the Federal Women's Program (FWP), as well as clients in the private sector. This small collection consists of a binder containing materials documenting training workshops offered by Resources for Women. The binder was divided into four sections: Assertive Training, Speech Communication, Human Resource Development: Racial and Cultural Awareness, and Career Development.

The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard occupied two different locations. The second site at League Island was the larger of the two sites and saw the greatest amount of shipbuilding activity. The Dravo Wellman Company was a pioneer manufacturer of steel plant equipment with an international reputation for engineering some of the largest material-handling projects ever built. Photographs show tests of a revolving crane ship (perhaps manufactured by Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Company) in the Philadelphia Navy Yard.