Finding Aids

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.

Renville McMann (1927-2015) was an inventor of television technology and a long-time CBS Laboratories and Thomson-CSF employee. He holds numerous patents related to television broadcasting equipment and technology. This collection documents McMann's activities, including his research for inventions/patents, patents, work at CBS Laboratories and Thomson CSF, and awards and achievements from 1951 to 2011.

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.

Founded in 1841 by Lewis Tappan, the Mercantile Agency — later known as R.G. Dun & Co. — was the first commercial reporting agency in America and dominated the field well into the twentieth century. The microfilmed credit ledgers contain volumes of handwritten credit reports on individuals and firms from the Mid-Atlantic region.

Richard C. du Pont (1911-1943) was an aviator and businessman. In 1938, he purchaseds stock of an inactive company called All American Aviation, Inc. and became PresidentThis collection encompasses the time of Richard C. du Pont's marriage to his death, with a particular focus on his work with gliders. The establishment and growth of Summit Aviation, his son's private air transportation company, is heavily documented from the early 1960s onward. The majority of the collection consists of newspaper clippings and photographs.

This collection includes materials related to Richard C. du Pont (1911-1943), pioneer in early aircraft and gliders and includes news clippings, official governmental documents related to his work as well as the logbook of his yacht, Nahma.

Richard E. Heckert (1924-2010) was chairman and CEO of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company from 1986 to 1989. His papers consist of his "personal" business files, most of which were generated by his membership on the boards of businesses and non-profit organizations.

Richard Hollerith, Jr. (1926-), spent his professional career working as an industrial designer of office products, computers, printers, office space, and household products. His papers include correspondence, meeting minutes, conference and working group reports, and blueprints reflecting his work as a designer and as an advocate of universal design and barrier-free environments.

Richard Imlay (1784-1867) was a railroad car manufacturer and inventor. The papers document his marketing of his patent for an improvement in the mode of supporting the bodies of railroad cars and carriages.

The IBM antitrust suit records are a collection assembled by Richard Thomas DeLamarter, a senior economist working for the Department of Justice on the case from 1974 to 1982. He is the author of Big Blue: IBM's Use and Abuse of Power (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986).

Richards, London & Kelley manufactured pattern-making machinery for woodworking. The firm founded, The Atlantic Works in 1869 for the manufacture of machines especially directed to railway car manufacturing, and Band Sawing Machinery. This collection consists of illustrations of woodworking machinery and descriptions from trade catalogs that are pasted into an album. The machinery was produced in Philadelphia by The Atlantic Works (also DBA Richards, London and Kelley).

Richmond Machine Company is an equipment manufacturer located in North Philadelphia. In around 1953, the Richmond Machine Company acquired the American Pulley Co. for the use of its patents. The American Pulley Co. was a power transmission equipment manufacturer which had its start as a pulley provider in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1892. This collection consists of two parts, the American Pulley Co. and Richmond Machine Company, the latter comprising only a small portion of the records. Within the American Pulley Co. series, researchers will find photographic prints of various hand and lift trucks, power transmission equipment, and non-mechanical products produced and distributed by the American Pulley Co. Researchers will also find images of facilities and employees demonstrating equipment for advertisement purposes. This collection transitions to the Richmond Machine Company, which bought the American Pulley Co. around 1953 and incorporated these photographs into their personal inventory. Included within this series are instructions, guides, and videos pertaining to drum and barrel reconditioning. Produced for both outside companies and personal sales, products within this collection demonstrate the role the American Pulley Co. played in early industrial development. Researchers interested in power transmission equipment would find this collection useful.

The Road Commissioners of Christiana Hundred were responsible for building and maintaining roads within the township. Christiana Hundred is an unincorporated subdivision of New Castle County, Delaware. The photocopied volume contains orders to lay out and maintain roads and other deliberations of the commissioners, the accounts of the overseers for construction and repair work, and the payments of the road tax by property owners.

Robert “Bob” A. Schneider (1943-) worked as a sound engineer, then a writer, producer, and director at Cinecraft Productions, a film and video production company, from 1965 until 1977. This small collection of digital copies consists of twenty films either written by Storycraft or produced by Cinecraft or both. There are also fourteen sets of digital copies of photographs, mostly production stills, but also some images of Cinecraft personnel, workspaces, and equipment. The materials in the collection date from 1947 to 1976.

Robert Bruce Watson (1931-) was the Coordinator for the Northeast Corridor Project for the Penn Central Railroad. This collection contains photographs and postcards of the high-speed equipment used in the Northeast Corridor Demonstration Project, including exteriors, interiors and details of trucks and other parts. There are several photographs of speakers at a train dedication event in 1996.

The collection consists of materials documenting Watson's work for PRR, particularly mechanical engineering and rolling stock. Records largely focus on the development of PRR locomotives and passenger cars in the mid-twentieth century.

Professional career files of mechanical engineer Robert B. Watson (1931-) documenting his work on the development of high-speed trains in the years between 1966 and 1998, especially his involvement in the Northeast Corridor Demonstration Project and the development of the first generation "Metroliners."

Dr. Robert C. Forney was a chemical engineer and served as a senior vice president for the DuPont Company. His papers largely document his career with the DuPont Company, his private and public life, artifacts, reports, and include various awards from his career in chemical engineering. Forney's work on redesigning the shuttle rocket booster following the space shuttle Challenger incident is included among his papers.

Because of rampant counterfeiting in the 1860s, Secretary of Treasury Hugh McCulloch (1808-1895) made an unprecedented decision to allow Robert C. Naramore (1829-1895) to photograph legal tender so that the images could be used to detect counterfeit bills. The photographs were published by the American Photograph Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. This small album has eighteen albumen photographs of U.S. bank notes.

Robert Coleman (1748-1825) was one of the most important ironmasters in Pennsylvania and acquired Elizabeth Furnance near Manheim, Pennsylvania. His papers consists of correspondence, receipts, and miscellany, mostly involving land purchase.

Robert E. Holeton (1911-1962) was an organic chemist at the DuPont Company from 1933 to 1962. He was the District Manager of the Petroleum Chemicals Division from 1954 until his death. From 1947 to 1953, Holeton perfomed "Chemical Magic" shows with a colleague in which they would demonstrate the unusual chemical reactions that can occur in the laboratory. These demonstrations were intentended to promote industrial safety. This small collection of Holeton's papers provides insight into his career as an industrial chemist, and then later as a sales represenative and district manager of the Petroleum Chemical Division. The collection strengths are the documentation related to industrial safety and Holeton's work performing the "Chemical Magic" shows and his time working at the Petroleum Chemical Division. There is a small but interesting set of material related to the Woodstown Civil Defense Council.

Chartered in 1869, the Wilmington & Western Rail Road Company formed to create a rail line connecting Wilmington, Delaware, with Landenberg, Pennsylvania. A non-profit organization, Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. (HRCV)., formed in 1960 and today operates the line as a heritage railroad. The collection includes eight maps of the line created by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1918 and two publications concerning the history of both the Wilmington & Western Railroad line and HRCV.

This collection consists of a picture reference file of American automobiles built between 1877 and 1979. Most pictures are illustrations clipped from magazines and other publications, but there are also some postcards, photographs, and ephemera items.

Robert Lenox Belknap (1848-1896) was a capitalist and financier of New York City. The Robert Lenox Belknap papers are a fragment saved by his descendants. The papers include Belknap's private letterbooks for the final years of his career (1892-1895), although 33 earlier volumes have been lost. They include both business and personal correspondence and give a good picture of the life of a New York financier of the second rank.

Robert "Bob" Allan Olodort (1946-2019) was an inventor, industrial designer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his invention of the "Stowaway," a portable, full-size keyboard that folds up to be pocket-size. It was used for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) like the Palm Pilot. Olodort invented the first computer label printer, the Smart Label Printer, among many other wireless mobile products. He holds dozens of U.S. and foreign utility and design patents. The Robert Olodort archive documents the industrial design process from both an inventor's and an entrepreneurial standpoint. The collection shows the development of a concept into a final product through product research, notes, correspondence, sketches, mechanical drawings, and prototypes. It provides valuable insight into how proprietary technology can be monetized by patenting and maintaining company relationships through development, licensing, and purchase agreements. The records also document business operations with financial files, board of directors files, and investor files. While none of the record sets are complete, there is a large enough sampling for a researcher to comprehend the complexity of design and business practices.

Robert R. Radcliff (1916-2006) joined E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. as a chemist in 1945. As later division head for new products development at the Rubber Laboratory, later the Elastomers Laboratory at Chestnut Run, his principal achievement was developing the maleimide curing system for making "Hypalon" artificial rubber. The papers in this collection are a small selection of professional materials preserved by Dr. Radcliff and his family.

Robert W. Sarnoff (1918-1997), son of RCA founder David Sarnoff, became president of NBC in 1956 and succeeded his father as president of RCA in 1965. This collection consists of films, videos and sound recordings dating from 1953 to 1979 documenting the life and career of Robert W. Sarnoff. The collection has been organized into six series: Events, Meetings, Press and media coverage, Speeches, Travel, and General.

Robert B. Watson (1931-) was a mechanical engineer who worked on the development of high-speed trains between 1966 and 1998. This collection consists of photographs related to railroads in Pennsylvania and New York, dating from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century.