Finding Aids

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. 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.

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 opened in 1909 as the Marconi Institute. This is a small collection of RCA home study lesson booklets for courses in television servicing, radio-television electronics, and electronic fundamentals. The instruction manuals all date to the 1950s.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

"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.

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.

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.

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. (1926-2022), 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).

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.

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."

Robert "Butch" C. Brown (1899-1978) was a dyestuff sales manager working in exports for the DuPont Company's Organic Chemicals Department. DuPont (China), Inc. was a firm established to manage the exports of dyestuffs manufactured in China by the DuPont Company's Organic Chemicals Department. This small collection primarily consists of correspondence between Brown and other branch managers stationed in China at the time of the Second Sino-Japanese war, as well as with executives in the home office of Wilmington, Delaware. Topics include evacuation plans for their families, the current status of circumstances in their cities, and DuPont policies regarding selling the remaining stock and collecting on outstanding accounts.

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.

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 performed "Chemical Magic" shows with a colleague in which they would demonstrate the unusual chemical reactions that can occur in the laboratory. These demonstrations were intended 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 representative 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.

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.

Rockland is an unincorporated old mill village in New Castle County, Delaware, and was later surrounded by du Pont family estates. The collection contains twelve edited oral history transcripts by Mary Laird Silvia (1938-2013) with people who lived in Rockland.

Rolf Dessauer (1926-) was a research chemist who specialized in dyes. He began a lengthy career with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in 1952 as a research chemist at Jackson Laboratory, DuPont’s center for dye research. Dessauer invented chemistry in which exposure to visible light stabilized the background enabling dark and light areas to retain their contrast. Intense research and patent studies led Dessauer and his colleagues to a new technology, UVI – Ultraviolet Imaging. Dessauer's papers document his career as a noted scientist and chemist.

The collection consists of official documents produced or used by Ronald DeGraw during his career as a public transit official and transit consultant, materials from pre-SEPTA operators of the Philadelphia transit system that he preserved from loss or destruction, research materials that he amassed for writing his published and projected books, and photographs and ephemera collected out of his interest in the history of transit systems, particularly electric traction lines or what came to be called light rail transit.

Established in 1915, the Rotary Club of Wilmington was dedicated to community service, and one of its most important functions was to provide educational support. Their records consist primarily of minutes, newsletters, and documentation on the club's student loan and scholarship programs.

Roy J. Plunkett (1910-1994) was the discoverer of Teflon, while working as a chemist at the DuPont Company. Plunkett's laboratory notebook documents the discovery of Teflon at DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in 1938. The notebook documents the experiments that led to the effective control of the rapid and explosive polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene gas into a solid polymer.

Royal Earl House (1814-1895) was an American inventor who patented an electic telegraph that could print Roman character letters and an electro-phonetic receiver for use in telegraphy. The collection is comprised of twenty-nine letters to House regarding his suit against the Bell monopoly for the phonetic telegraph, from 1885 to 1891.

R.R. Wright (1913-2009) was an employee of the RCA Corporation, one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, televisions, and consumer electronics products. This is a small collection of ephemera Wright preserved throughout his thirty-three year long career with the company. Included are sample publications, manuals, stationery and small artifacts with RCA logos or advertising.

Rubbermaid Incorporated is an American manufacturer and distributor of many household items. The collection is comprised of a public relations file consisting mostly of clippings and tear sheets, generally notices of the company in local papers and the trade press. Most deal with company performance, organizational culture, and personnel changes, with particular notices of Stanley C. Gault (1926-2016), CEO from 1980 to 1991.

Samuel Francis du Pont (1803-1865) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and fought in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. He was the fourth child and second surviving son of Victor Marie du Pont (1767-1827) and his wife, Gabrielle Joséphine de la Fite de Pelleport (1770-1837). The collection contains two membership certificates from the U.S. Naval Lyceum and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Samuel Francis du Pont (1803-1865) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and fought in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. He was the fourth child and second surviving son of Victor Marie du Pont (1767-1827) and his wife, Gabrielle Joséphine de la Fite de Pelleport (1770-1837). The letter is writing to inform an unidentified captain of Naval surgeon John S. Wiley's death.