Audiotapes, CDs and digital files: an ongoing project to interview and preserve the memories of people important in the jazz world, including jazz musicians, singers, dancers, producers, arrangers, and others. A list of interviewees and interviewers follows.
The following is a list of the individuals who conducted the interviews.
1. Brown, Anthony
2. Baker, Lida
3. Burstein, Julie
Interviewer
2. Bluiett, Hamiet
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into six series.
Series 1, DAT and CD Original Interview Recordings, 1992-2012
Series 2, Cassette Reference and Master Interview Tapes, 1992-2012
Series 3, Audio CD Reference Copies, 2000-2012
Series 4, Video/CD, 1994-2012
Series 5, Transcripts and Abstracts, 1992-2014
Series 6, Supplemental Documentation, 1992-2012
Biographical / Historical:
The Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program, a project of "America's Jazz Heritage, A Partnership of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution" initiative was created in 1992. More than 150 in-depth oral history interviews were conducted from 1992 through 2002. The collection was transferred to the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History in 2000. Now part of the National Museum of American History's American Music History Initiatives, the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program continues to conduct interviews as funding is available.
The Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program was established to document significant jazz musicians, performers, producers, and business associates in their own words and voices. Program staff contacted and worked with potential interviewees to arrange for interviews. Each interview was conducted by a jazz authority and was recorded on digital audiotape by a professional audio engineer. The interviews averaged 6 hours in length and covered a wide range of topics including early years, initial involvement in music, generally, and jazz specifically, as well as experiences in the jazz music world, including relationships to musicians. The original DAT interview tapes were then dubbed to audiocassettes and CD to create protection and access copies. More recent interviews have been recorded using fully digital technology and the interviews are preserved and made availbel as digital files.
A number of the interviews were conducted as part of the Ella Fitzgerald Oral History Project of the Jazz Oral History Program. Funded by the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, these interviews focus on the life and work of Ella Fitzgerald. The National Endowments for the Arts Jazz Masters Oral Histories Program continues to support new interviews with NEA Jazz Masters.
For more information about jazz concerts, education, collections, Jazz Appreciation Month, and the Jazz Master orchestra, visit Smithsonian Jazz.
Provenance:
The interviews were made for the Smithsonian Institution under the auspices of the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program supported by America's Jazz Heritage, funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Oral Histories Program. Additional interviews were conducted with support from the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Researchers must use reference copies.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Release forms exist for most interviews.
[Interviewee name] Interview, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program Collection, 1992-2014, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Sponsor:
The interviews were made for the Smithsonian Institution under the auspices of the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program and supported by America's Jazz Heritage, funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Oral Histories Program. Additional interviews were conducted with support from the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation.
The collections documents the growth and development of the American wine industry, 1996-2002, using the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars as a case study. Materials include oral and video histories, photographs, business records, and printed materials.
Scope and Contents:
The Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) Documentation Project was conducted by an inter-disciplinary team at the National Museum of American History. It is a part of a larger effort by the Museum's American Food and Wine team to document and interpret the changing ways in which Americans have produced, prepared, and consumed their food and drink, especially in the years after World War II. Team members are Nanci Edwards (Office of Project Management and former Collections Manager of the Museum's Agriculture Collection), John Fleckner (Senior Archivist, Archives Center), Rayna Green (Curator, Division of Home and Community Life), and Paula Johnson (Curator, Division of Work and Industry). Jeff Tinsley of the Smithsonian's Office of Photographic Services accompanied the team and shot many of the slides and color photographs.
This collection chronicles the growth and development of American viticulture and viniculture from its revival in the 1960s to the present. It offers a case study in the art and business of making fine wine from the bud to the bottle. Warren Winiarski, founder of SLWC in California's Napa Valley, is deeply interested in the legacy of American winemaking and his winery's place within its broader history. The Winiarski family has generously participated and financially supported the creation of this collection.
The documentation touches on all aspects of the wine business, including picking grapes in the vineyards, making wine in the cellar, marketing it from the business office, and promoting its sales in the tasting room and around the globe. SLWC employees describe the land, the work, the tools, the technical processes, the passions, and the motivations that create SLWC's world famous wines. The collection also provides insights into wider patterns of American immigration history, agricultural and environmental history, ethnic community development, land use in the West, product marketing, and consumerism.
The archival collection is mainly comprised of recorded oral history interviews, documentary photographs, and video footage created by the documentation team in 1997. It also includes company newsletters, vineyard and winery production data sheets, wine labels, and related printed materials collected in 1997 with additional materials added occasionally.
It is divided into seven series, including interviews and abstracts, audiotapes, photographs and slides, videotapes, business records, and printed materials.
Arrangement:
Series 1: Interview Transcripts and Abstracts, 1997, 2003
Series 2: Oral History Interview Sound and Video Recordings, 1996-1997
Subseries 2.1: Sound Recordings, 1997
Subseries 2.2: Video Tapes, 1996-1997
Series 3: Photographs, circa 1960-2000
Series 4: Video Tapes, undated
Subseries 3.1: Family Photographs: circa 1960-1980
Series 7: Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Thirtieth Anniversary, 2003
Biographical / Historical:
The history of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is a family history. It is also a story, in microcosm, of the development of Napa Valley, California as an international wine region and of the rising global acclaim for California wines. Building on the skills and knowledge of earlier Napa winemakers, Warren Winiarski became one of the most influential vintners in the region and his premium wines some of the most prized.
Winiarski arrived in Napa Valley in 1964 with his wife, Barbara, and their children. Like many Napa winemakers of this era, he left behind another career, in his case, an academic position at the University of Chicago to create a family business in a rural setting. At the time, Napa was just beginning to rebuild its reputation after Prohibition, a devastating vine disease, and the widespread production of cheap wines had soured the image of California wines. After apprenticing with several local winemakers, including Lee Stewart and Robert Mondavi, he purchased the land and winery that would become Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) in 1972. Winiarski's choice of land was based, in part, Nathan Fay's success in growing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in an adjoining vineyard; Winiarski later added Fay's property to SLWC.
To commemorate the American bicentennial in 1976, a blind wine tasting at L'Academie du Vin in Paris pitted the best of America's new wines against French classics. Stunning the international wine community, many American wines outscored their French counterparts, with SLWC's 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon taking first place in its division. The accomplishment brought SLWC and Napa Valley worldwide recognition. It excited a great demand for California wines and a new appreciation for American winemaking techniques, which combined new scientific methods with Old World traditions.
The Paris Tasting added momentum to changes already underway in the cultural, financial, and physical landscape of the Napa Valley. It spurred the development of many new wineries, the expansion of acreage under grape cultivation, and the growth of the region's tourism industry. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars was an integral part of these transformations. It continues to play a vital role in the region and the wine industry.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
American Wine History Documentation Project Records, 1976-2002, Archives Center collection # 817, has recorded interviews, photographs, and other documentary materials created and collected by the American Food and Wine History team.
Separated Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds many artifacts from SLWC, including a wine barrel, grape picking knives, shovels, and other vineyard tools; lab equipment used in winemaking; wine bottles, labels, glasses, and other consumer products; and a bottle of the award winning 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon. See accessions: 1998.0181 and 1998.3058.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Only reference copies of audiovisual materials may be used.
Papers of a Croatian-born California winemaker documenting his career in the California wine industry since 1958, especially his years at Chateau Montelena winery (1972-1977) and the subsequent creation of the Grgich Hills Cellar winery (1977- ). There also are records of Grgich's immigration journey and materials about the evolution of the California wine industry. The papers include correspondence, business records, handwritten notes, publications, and a few photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The Mike Grgich Papers document his career in the California wine industry, especially his years at Chateau Montelena winery (1972-1977) and the subsequent creation of the Grgich Hills Cellars winery. There also are records of Grgich's immigration journey and materials about the evolution of the California wine industry. The papers include correspondence, business records, publications, handwritten notes, and a few photographs. Although the collection covers Grgich's life from young adulthood into the twenty-first century, the record is fragmentary, especially for the early years after his arrival in California in 1958.
The Grgich papers had no overall filing system when they were donated. The largest body of materials consists of personal files, arranged by the processing archivist into chronological and subject (topical) sub-series respecting, when possible, the original order of materials. Groups of materials directly related to Chateau Montelena and Grgich Cellars have been kept together but divided into chronological files and subject files. Publications constitute the fourth series. Further information on the organization of the collection is found below in the "System of Arrangement" note.
A single folder of photographs in Subseries 2 of Series 1 includes several snapshots of Grgich in a winery, two group photographs (likely of classes at the University of California-Davis), and several publicity shots. A few additional photographs are found in the Chateau Montelena publicity files and scattered elsewhere within the collection.
Series 3, Grgich Hills Cellars, 1976-2008, undated
Series 4, Publications, 1923, 1959-1996, undated
The Grgich papers were found in packing cartons in his garage and an adjacent storage area in his home in Calistoga, California. Mike Grgich had recently moved to the home. The papers had no discernible overall filing system. Papers found together in folders, mailing envelopes, and other enclosures have been kept together when they constituted a meaningful grouping. Grgich seems often to have retained materials as they accumulated over time. In arranging this collection, some of these materials have been organized chronologically by year. Some of Grgich's papers were found organized by topic or subject. These groupings have been retained; original folder or envelope titles or headings are given in quotation marks.
About one fourth of the collection consists of materials directly related to the Chateau Montelena and Grgich Hills wineries; some of these materials were found intermingled with purely personal papers while others were filed separately. These materials are grouped separately. Printed materials were sometimes found with loose documents inserted; these were maintained together within a folder when they appeared to be related and when no other location within the collection seemed apparent.
Biographical / Historical:
Miljenko Grgich, born April 1, 1923 in Desne, a small farming village in the Croatian region of Yugoslavia, was one of eleven children. His father, along with other agricultural activities, kept a small vineyard where the children helped in cultivation and winemaking. As a young man Grgich worked in a store in his hometown. He was drafted and served a year, 1944-1945, in the Yugoslav army.
Grgich entered the University of Zagreb in 1949, studying a range of science subjects and taking brief courses in English and Russian. In 1954 Grgich entered West Germany on a student visa but soon declared himself a refugee and "stateless" person. Unable to secure an American visa, he was quickly approved by Canada where he arrived in February, 1956.
Grgich lived for two years in British Columbia holding a variety of jobs while seeking admission to the United States. He began to use the name "Mike" during these years. In 1958 the pioneering wine maker Lee Stewart at Souverain Cellars responded to an "employment wanted" ad that Grgich placed in a California wine industry newsletter and on the basis of that offer Grgich was able to enter the country. Grgich has remained in the Napa Valley since that time. He married Tatjana Cizmic in 1962 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1964.
Between 1958 and 1972 Grgich worked at Souverain, the Christian Brothers winery, Beaulieu Vineyard, and Robert Mondavi winery. At Beaulieu Grgich worked under Andre Tchelistcheff, Napa's best known winemaker in this era. The two developed techniques for malolactic fermentation and microfiltration that became standards in the industry.
As Grgich developed his technical skills and winery experience he also nurtured an ambition to become head winemaker and co-owner in a winery. In the spring of 1972, Grgich joined Los Angeles attorney James Barrett, commercial real estate developer Ernest Hahn, and Napa Valley businessman Lee Pasich in forming Chateau Montelena winery. Passich and Grgich were "limited partners" while Barrett and Hahn were major investors. Barrett regularly visited the winery and was closely involved in its management. In three hectic months Grgich oversaw conversion of a nineteenth century winery building into a fully equipped modern facility which crushed its first grapes, purchased from various growers in the region, in September. Chateau Montelena also began to replant its vineyards in vines that would produce premium wines, a process that would take several years.
Chateau Montelena and Mike Grgich achieved international celebrity in May, 1976 when their 1973 Chardonnay wine topped a list of French and American wines at a highly publicized blind tasting in Paris. (The red wine winner was made by Warren Winiarski at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars about twenty-five miles further south in the Napa Valley.) Staged during the bicentennial year of the American Revolution, the Paris tasting confirmed and further contributed to the rise of premium winemaking in California and to changes in American wine consumption. In 1996, the National Museum of American History recognized the 1976 event with a symposium on the history of winemaking and the addition of wines from the winning vintages of the two wineries.
In the fall of 1976 Grgich began discussions leading to the creation of a new winery, Grgich Hills Cellar. In this venture he joined Austin Hills, grandson and great nephew of the founders of the Hills Bros. coffee business and a Columbia Business School MBA. Hills already owned a vineyard, and on July 4, 1977, they broke ground for the new wine production and storage facility in Rutherford. Grgich Hills at first specialized in white wines but added Cabernet Sauvignon in 1984. In 2006 the entire estate was certified organic, making it "the country's largest biodynamic winegrower." In 2007 the business was renamed Grgich Hills Estate ("in recognition that all of its wines now come from its own vineyards"). Today Mike Grgich remains involved in the business while his daughter, Violet, and nephew, Ivo Jeramaz, are active in day-to-day management.
Grigich never lost interest in his homeland, and in 1990 he returned there for the first time. In 1995 he received his degree in enology and viticulture from the University of Zagreb and the following year established a new winery, Grgić Vina, in Croatia. He has been a generous supporter of Roots of Peace, an international organization dedicated to the removal of landmines.
Sources:
George M. Taber, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (Scribner: 2005). Taber covered the Paris Tasting in 1976 for Time magazine. He interviewed Mike Grgich at length, and Grgich's annotated revisions of Taber's drafts about him are in this collection. Bottle Shock, a 2008 feature film, a highly fictionalized version of the story of Chateau Montelena and the Paris Tasting, is not based on this book.
Miljenko Grgich, "A Croatian-American Winemaker in the Napa Valley," an oral history conducted in 1992, in The Wine Spectator California Winemen Oral History Series, Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/wine.html .
Mike Grgich Oral History Interview, September 7, 1997, American Wine Documentation Project, Archives Center, National Museum of American History (ACNMAH#817).
Mike Grgich: 50 Napa Valley Years (Grgich Hills Estate, 2008) (Series 3: Grgich Hills Cellar, box 8, folder 11) A twenty-seven page booklet published by the winery to celebrate Grgich's fifty years in Napa Valley, 1958-2008.
Related Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds artifacts donated by Mike Grgich, including a suitcase which he carried from Croatia, a blue beret, pocketknife, tasting cup, two spoons, boxed laboratory instrument, framed religious picture, ten books from Croatia on viticulture and enology, and an atlas of grape varieties. See Accession number 2006.0157 and 2006.3084.
The Division also holds examples of the wines from Chateau Montelena and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars that won the 1976 Paris Tasting. Accession numbers 1996.0028.01 and 1996.0029.01
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Mike Grgich, July 2, 2006.
Restrictions:
Conditions Governing Access: The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Washington (D.C.) -- Small business -- 20th century
Date:
1946-2004
bulk 1970-2004
Summary:
Nathaniel Mathis is a Washington, D.C., hairstylist, inventor, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. His papers document his business life and community involvement.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the work of a hairstylist, inventor, entrepreneur, and public figure whose career reflects significant changes in the African American community in the later 20th century. It is rich in visual imagery created by and for this community. Business papers, correspondence, publicity, photographs, awards and certificates documenting Mathis's work as a highly regarded barber and hairstylist in Washington, D.C., and as member of the D.C. Board of Barbering and Cosmetology are included. Business papers offer insight into the workings of a small privately-owned business. Numerous publicity items and photographs offer evidence of African American style and fashion in New York and Washington, D.C., from the late 1960s through today. Additional material documents Mathis's activities as a community activist, motivational speaker and distance runner. The collection also includes photographs, oral history interviews, and audio-visual materials.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series.
Series 1: Biographical Information and Activities, 1946-2001, undated
Series 2: Beauty Business Documents and Advertising, 1969-2002, undated
Series 3: Publicity, 1963-2002
Series 4: Washington, D.C. Barbering and Cosmetology Boards, 1966-1997, undated
Series 5: Correspondence, 1967-2002, undated
Series 6: Awards and Certificates, 1969-2001, undated
Series 7: Photographs, 1966-1989, undated
Series 8: Video Materials, 1983-2002, undated
Series 9: Audio Tapes, 1998-2004, undated
Series 10: Memorabilia, 1992-1998, undated
Biographical / Historical:
"Nat Mathis (b. 1946) is a native Washingtonian. He is a man of many talents and measures his success in many ways: innovative hairstylist, entrepreneur, inventor, community activist, motivational speaker and distance runner. Mathis opened his first barber shop in 1969. He is the winner of many national and international hairstyling awards and competitions and was the first African American to win the International Hair Styling competition in Cairo, Egypt in 1981. Mathis was among the first African American hairstylists to embrace and popularize the Afro and, later, cornrows -- hairstyles which many view as expressions of black empowerment. Mathis himself seldom expresses a political ideology of hair, but by 1970, Nat was known among his many satisfied clients and peers as "the Bush Doctor" for his expertise in Afro style and maintenance. He has styled hair for many celebrities; made numerous television appearances; and has been a stylist for several productions at the Kennedy Center, and for two major motion pictures, including Nixon, for which he re-created period hairstyles. He is active in community affairs, gives motivational speeches throughout the Washington, D.C., area, and is particularly interested in mentoring young people. He currently operates a barber shop adjacent to his home in Capitol Heights, Maryland."
*Biographical information provided by Nat Mathis's Official Website, "A Man of Many Talents." http://www.natmathis.com (accessed 02 August, 2006).
Separated Materials:
Mr. Mathis donated three of his patented barbering vests (See Accession # 1998.0114) to the Division of Home and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
Provenance:
Collection donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History by Nathaniel Mathis on April 9, 1998.
Restrictions:
The copllection is open for research.
Physical Access: Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.
Technical Access: Series 8, Video materials and Series 9, Audiotapes may not be used by researchers unless reference and viewing copies are made available.
Rights:
Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use. The Archives Center does not own rights to the patent, trademark or any related interest in the artifacts.
United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human RIghts. Search this
United States Catholic Conference. Migration and Refugee Services Search this
Extent:
0.6 Cubic feet (2 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Interviews
Oral histories (document genres)
Correspondence
Identity cards
Diaries
Audiotapes
Checkbooks
Date:
1953-2006
Summary:
Papers relating to Catherine Hann's life in Vietnam (1953-1981), her flight by boat to Malaysia and stay at Pulau Bidong refugee camp (February --September 1981), her immigration to the United States (September 1981), and her work in Maryland as a circuit board assembler, manicurist and esthetician.
Scope and Contents:
The Catherine Hann Papers are divided into five series: Life in Vietnam, pre-1981; Stay in Malaysia, 1981; United States, 1981-2006; Oral History Interviews, 2002, 2006; and Photographs, 1955-2005.
Series 1 consists of four documents from Hann's life in Vietnam: an official copy of Hann's 1953 birth certificate, her college student ID, her Gia Long High School student ID and her 1974 South Vietnamese identity card.
Series 2 documents Hann's stay in the Pulau Bidong refugee camp off the coast of Malaysia and her family's medical processing in Kuala Lumpur. Especially interesting is a small diary Hann kept in 1981 documenting the building of the fishing boat, the voyage in the Gulf of Thailand, the stay at Pulau Bidong and Kuala Lumpur, and the family's first few months in the United States. There is an English translation of the diary. Other materials in this series include letters sent by relatives and friends to Hann in the refugee camp, papers documenting a family member's attempt to sponsor the family in the U.S., and hand-made Certificates of Commendation awarded to Hann's husband for his work in the refugee camp. The original letter with attached photographs from the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur granting permission for the family to immigrate is included.
Series 3 describes Hann's life in the United States as she transitioned from refugee to financially successful American citizen. Uncommon pieces of ephemera are cancelled checks repaying a loan from the United States Catholic Conference for the purchase of plane tickets from Malaysia to the United States. Also included are papers from Hann's seventeen years in the electronics industry, textbooks for manicurist training, a ledger and checkbook from Hann's short-lived Nails & Beauty Spa, Inc., and daily schedules with earnings from her current job at Totally Polished.
Series 4 consists of the original audiocassettes, reference CDs and typed transcript of an oral history conducted by Susan B. Strange, associate curator, with Hann on March 7, 2006, as well as a typed transcript of a December 14, 2002, interview with Hann conducted by Daniel Ekman, a student at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland.
Original photographs in Series 5 document Hann's life in Vietnam, her husband's work in the refugee camp, the family's departure from Pulau Bidong, and Hann at work at Fairchild Space Co. Also in Series 5 is a folder with photocopies of seven photographs taken in 2005 by a Smithsonian staff member of Hann working at her manicure table. Smithsonian negative numbers are included with the photocopies; releases from the photographer, Hann, and the woman having a manicure, are in the Archives Center's control file for this collection. In the same folder are photocopies of five photographs (originals retained by Hann) showing Hann's life in Vietnam; the Archives Center scan number is printed on each photocopy. Hann granted copyright in these five photographs to the National Museum of American History on April 22, 2006; the release form is in the Archives Center's control file.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series with chronological arrangement.
Series 1: Life in Vietnam, 1953-1981
Series 2: Stay in Malaysia, 1981
Series 3: United States, 1981-2006
Series 4: Oral History Interviews, 2002, 2006
Series 5: Photographs, 1955-2005
Biographical / Historical:
Catherine Hann was born in Saigon, State of Vietnam, on November 14, 1953 as Huynh bach Thuy. (She changed her name to Catherine Hann when she became a naturalized American citizen on June 19, 1987.) Hann, her parents and younger siblings lived in Saigon where her father worked as an instructor at Truong Quan Y, a South Vietnamese Army medical school. In 1968 Hann's family moved further south to Rach-Gia in Kien Giang province to care for Hann's recently-widowed paternal grandmother. Hann, the eldest of twelve children, stayed behind in Saigon, living with a great-uncle, so that she could continue attending Gia Long High School, one of the most prestigious and academically challenging public schools for girls in the country.
After graduation from Gia Long in 1973, Hann attended the University of Science in Saigon where she studied to become a biologist. In 1975, Hann's father, who had worked in a South Vietnamese military hospital in Rach-Gia since his arrival there in 1968, was sent to a "re-education camp." Hann returned to Rach-Gia to be with her mother and to help support the family. She then began attending a teacher training program in Rach-Gia where she trained as a biology teacher. At the training program, Hann met Han Huu Vinh who became her husband in 1976. After graduation, Hann taught biology in a high school in Rach-Gia while her husband taught mathematics in the same school. Their son, Kinh, was born in 1977.
In addition to supplementing the family income with her teacher salary, she also purchased unprocessed rice or "rough rice," had it milled, and sold the resulting white rice. To make a little more money for the family, the hulls and other residue from the milling process were sold as hog food. The future looked bleak, and Hann and her husband decided to take their young son and flee the country.
After two failed attempts to escape by boat, the Hanns were luckier the third time. A family friend obtained permission to build a fishing boat, a small wooden craft only 11.5 meters by 2.1 meters. Hann's family, one of the initiators and organizers of the scheme to use the fishing boat as a means of escape, hired a man who had served in the South Vietnamese Navy to navigate. At 2:05 a.m. on the morning of February 14, 1981, ninety-two people left Rach-Gia on the overloaded boat and headed southwest. Three days later the fishing vessel, towing another boat found stranded after being attacked by pirates, docked at Pulau Bidong, an island off the coast of Malaysia. After five months in the United Nations refugee camp on Pulau Bidong, Hann, husband, son, brother, and husband's nephew were taken to Kuala Lumpur for processing in preparation for immigration to the United States.
Hann's husband's sister, a naturalized American living in Rockville, Maryland, was their sponsor, and on September 11, 1981, the five-member family group arrived in the United States. The five continued to live together for about four years before Hann's brother and her husband's nephew went out on their own. After being on welfare and receiving intensive English-language training, Hann and her husband gradually became self-sufficient. Hann's first job was working in the cafeteria at Montgomery College in Rockville which she left to work at Denro Labs doing electronic assembly. Hann's husband's first job was at Solarex testing solar panels.
After almost ten years in the electronic assembly field, a Vietnamese friend encouraged Hann to train as a manicurist, and in 1992 Hann graduated from the Aesthetics Institute of Cosmetology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At first she only manicured her own nails, but a year or so later Hann began working on Saturdays at a busy nail salon while continuing to work full-time in the electronics industry. When she learned that doing facials and waxing was faster and more profitable than doing manicures, Hann obtained training and a license to become an esthetician. After her week-day employer, Orbital Science Corp., moved to Sterling, Virginia, in 2000, a long commute for Hann, she started working full-time as an esthetician and manicurist at Totally Polished in Potomac, Maryland.
Hann works six days a week at Totally Polished, and on her day off she spends the morning doing manicures and waxing for private clients in their homes. This hard work has enabled Hann and her husband to pay off the mortgage on their single-family house in Gaithersburg and purchase a rental house in Florida. Their only child, Kinh, also has done well, earning a Master's Degree from the University of Maryland and now (2006) working on his PhD in biomedical engineering. Kinh is employed by Digene Corporation; he bought a house three years ago; and, as his mother proudly states, he drives a brand new BMW. Hann's stated reason for fleeing her country was "for my son's future;" the family's hard work and sacrifices seem to have made her hopes come true.
Separated Materials:
In 2005, the Division of Work and Industry collected manicure tools and soldering test equipment from Hann; in 2006 the division collected facial and waxing-related objects from Hann. Clothing worn on the boat fleeing Vietnam was donated in 2006 to the Division of Home and Community Life, along with tweezers Hann purchased in Saigon and carried throughout her immigration experience. The wedding of Kinh Hann to Leila Poursedehi in 2008 is documented in the Archives Center Weddings Documentation Collection, collection number 1131. The Vietnamese wedding dress that Leila Poursedehi wore at their wedding dinner was donated to the costume collection in the Division of Home and Community Life in 2008.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Catherine Hann, March 18, 2006.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Records of a family-owned manufacturing firm, best known for kitchenware products including the Bundt Pan and Micro-Go-Round. The collection richly documents the entrepreneurial spirit of the Minnesota firm and its history of product innovation through technical files, marketing materials, and administrative and financial records.
Scope and Contents:
The Nordic Ware collection consists of approximately twenty-eight cubic feet of records from the Northland Aluminum Company, most dealing with its Nordic Ware business. The Dalquist family recognized the importance of record keeping, and this collection documents very well the evolution of an entrepreneurial, family-owned American business from its earliest years.
Of particular interest for researchers may be the Pillsbury and Bundt Cake Pan dual marketing strategies, showcased mainly in Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004, the introduction of ethnic cookware into American Culture through such dishes as the Rosettes and Timbales set and Taco dinner kit, the segmentation of product lines by price level to target consumers of differing incomes, and the issue of a trademarked term like "Bundt" becoming generic as seen in Series 6, Legal Records, 1962-1978. Series 4, Engineering Department Records, 1950-1994, provide in-depth documentation of the technical development of several of Nordic Ware's innovative products.
Series 1: Historical and Background Materials, 1940s-2006
These materials provide a history of Dave Dalquist as an entrepreneur and how this led to his ownership of Northland Aluminum Products and the Nordic Ware brand. There are histories put together by the company as well financial summaries for some years. The series contains The Nordic Ware Saga, a book edited and produced by the Dalquist family, and America at Home: A Celebration of Twentieth-Century Housewares. Both books have valuable background information on the company and how it fits into the housewares industry. There also are materials from the original business, Plastics for Industry. An undated marketing booklet, published about 1990, briefly describes the company's history and its product line and corporate structure. Additional company history is found in six installments written by Dave Dalquist under the title "From the Skipper" and covering the years 1946 to l985.
Series 2: David Dalquist Files, 1963-1993
David Dalquist, the president and founder of the company, kept these files in his office and home. Dalquist had no formal filing system and preferred to group records together as he used them. This order has been maintained as much as possible to the folder level. Several files contain information and notes from Dalquist's attendance at the National Housewares Shows and the meetings held there with his sales representatives. The annual Housewares Shows in Chicago were key events in this industry and Nordic Ware made them a high priority. The sales meetings materials include speeches Dalquist delivered. This series reveals Dalquist's involvement with every aspect of the company. It portrays an entrepreneur who began with an engineering degree, very limited capital, and no business experience. Dalquist built a multi-million dollar company while insisting on high ethical and business standards.
The several companies owned by the Dalquist family are documented in these files. There is a merger agreement between Northland Metal Finishers and Northland Aluminum. The records show the company went through several phases and had several brands besides Nordic Ware, including Minnesota Ware, DuNord, and Norcast.
Series 3: Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004
The Marketing and Sales Records focus mainly on the promotion of the Nordic Ware Brand and the sale and distribution of products, especially to the retail trade industry. There is evidence of how Nordic Ware presented its products to the industry and of other types of promotions to build brand awareness. These records are divided into three subseries: Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995; Subseries 2, Promotional and Trade Sales Materials, 1958-2004; and Subseries 3, Public Relations, 1948-1992
Subseries 3.1: General and Department Records, 1967-1995
Dave Dalquist initially handled most of the company's marketing and sales, but as the company grew, a separate department was created. Among other things, this department created sketches of new product ideas that employees submitted as part of the New Product Idea meetings periodically scheduled by Dave Dalquist. Several files contain this artwork and a design notebook. There are also the files of Doug White, a Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Other art renderings, such as line art used in catalogs, are in this series.
Subseries 3.2: Promotional and Trade Sales Materials, 1958-2004
This subseries consists both of advertising geared towards the trade industry and that aimed at the consumer to promote brand image and sales. A 1970s scrapbook is a record of cross-promotional offers in which Nordic Ware and other firms advertised their products together in a single advertisement. The scrapbook also documents Nordic Ware products offered as sales premiums. The advertisements are organized by the brand co-featured in the advertisement. The Bundt Pan was the predominant Nordic Ware product in these advertisements. The Pillsbury file is especially important as it shows the building of the dual marketing arrangement which allowed Bundt Pans to be packaged with Pillsbury mixes. Nordic Ware received national publicity that it would otherwise have been difficult to generate. The Bundt Pan was integrated into magazine recipes and articles and included in mentions of other brands. These records document the remarkably brief time in which the Bundt Pan achieved national recognition.
The trade market was critical to Nordic Ware. The Sales Guides, 1982-2004, were given to regional sales representatives with information on sales promotions and incentives to representatives for sales of Nordic Ware products in specific markets. The Guides also have product descriptions, so that each representative was fully familiar with the products. Along with these guides, Nordic Ware put out trade catalogs, also found in this subseries. Although there is no master list of the catalogs, many have been hand-dated by Nordic Ware employees. Many of the models in the catalogs and the advertisements were members of the Dalquist family, neighbors, and other acquaintances.
Subseries 3.3: Public Relations, 1948-1992
These materials mainly document a series of campaigns created by Sara Jean Thomas, a public relations contractor. She worked with the marketing and sales department to build the Nordic Ware brand and to create a series of television and radio product promotions in the form of household hints. Several scripts are included here along with details of the overall campaigns. There also are files documenting the reach of these promotions. Other materials include a press kit for Chef Tell, a celebrity chef who represented Nordic Ware products for several years and who made appearances at its booth at the National Housewares Shows. New product press releases (with photographs) and general public relations files (1986-1989), along with the Marketing Communication Plans (1987-1989), give details on the planning of other public relations efforts. The trade press clippings scrapbook documents mentions of Nordic Ware and its products, competitors' advertising, and general developments in the house wares industry. Trade press clippings also are found in Series 8, subseries 4.
Series 4: Engineering Department Records, 1950-1994
The Engineering Department was vital to the success of Nordic Ware. Records in this series reveal the process by which a new product idea was developed, built, tested, and turned into a saleable product. Museum staff members selected the records in this series, occupying about five cubic feet, from a much larger group of files, roughly twenty-five feet in extent. The criteria for selection included substantive information on the design development of new products, especially those requiring substantial engineering work, and on product re-design to create cost efficiencies and resolve product problems.
Subseries 4.1: General Records, 1969-1992
These records deal with general departmental business and include incoming and outgoing correspondence and general files kept by individual engineers. They also provide operational information such as source for production materials, work orders processing, and treatment of employee issues in the department.
Engineers in the department kept these notebooks mainly for developing design ideas and working out the technical logistics of bringing the designs into production. The notebooks also served as evidential records for patent disputes. The engineers signed and dated the pages of their notebooks as proof of when ideas were conceptualized and who recorded them.
Subseries 4.3: Product Files, 1976-1993, undated
These records originally were organized by product number, but no index to the numbering system accompanied the records so files of like products were grouped together. The Micro-Go-Round, Oven-Aire, and Wok are the most thoroughly documented. The records include blueprints at various stages of the products development, work orders for research and development, outside quotations, invoices, quality control tests and guidelines, memoranda to and from other company offices about product development, and other types of operational materials. Most of these products had multiple versions, and evidence of ongoing testing and modification is seen in the records.
These records document some of the innovation that made Nordic Ware an important presence in the housewares industry. The Micro-Go-Round was a particularly revolutionary product at the time, and the records show how the company recognized a need for the product and did what was necessary to develop it, although it had little or no experience with microwave technology. Micro-Go-Round records also are found in Subseries 5 of this series. The Oven-Aire required extensive development efforts to bring to fruition. The idea behind this product was to make conventional ovens cook more evenly and operate like a convection oven. The records include photographs of the original working model, tests done in some of the engineers' home kitchens, and comparison photographs of foods cooked with and without the device. Though the product never took off in the market, the invention and development process is documented here from the perspective of the several parties who worked on it. To a much more limited degree, records for some of the other products -- like the Popgun Popcorn Popper and the Supremer Ice Creamer --demonstrate the design and development process. There is even information about packaging design for some of the products.
Subseries 4.4: New Product Ideas Files, 1976-1993
These records document Nordic Ware's efforts to identify and develop a stream of new products and to involve employees in that process. They include product ideas submitted from outside the firm but primarily relate to New Product Meetings at which employees shared their own ideas. The meetings often included voting for the best ideas and for those that would be most feasible to manufacture. Most of the files contain original artwork, usually brought to the meeting by the marketing department. They also include lists of product ideas and who submitted them, ballots for the voting on the best ideas, and notes taken at the meetings. Several files have memoranda to the employees encouraging submission of ideas outside the annual meeting cycle. Related materials are found in Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004, Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995.
Subseries 4.5: General Research and Development, 1976-1993
This subseries mainly contains files on the development of microwave cookware products and the Micro-Go-Round. Dr. T.K. Ishii, a leading researcher in microwave technologies from Marquette University, served as a consultant to Nordic Ware. He advised on technical problems and explained processes to the Nordic Ware engineers to enable them to develop products. Other materials deal with the application and certification process for Underwriters Laboratories, an independent organization that tested products and certified them as meeting its safety standards.
Subseries 4.6: Patent Materials, 1950-1994
Many records in this subseries deal with the patent application process. An outside legal firm submitted Nordic Ware's applications and negotiated with the Patent Office. The records include correspondence surrounding patent disputes and sworn affidavits by engineers submitted as proof of their work. Several reference files of non-Nordic Ware patents are in this subseries. Many were sent by the law office to Nordic Ware engineers to keep them current on new developments.
Subseries 4.7: Trade Associations, 1977-1994
These records reflect the participation of Engineering Department staff in trade associations, especially The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. Lloyd Keleny and several others were involved with the Microwave Oven Cookware Committee. The Society was concerned with the absence of standards for microwave ovens and the resulting problem that cookware used in these ovens was not always effective. The Committee gathered data and encouraged the microwave industry to recognize that consistency was needed. There also are files from the Frankfurt International Housewares Fair, 1994. Nordic Ware tried to build its presence internationally, and fairs such as this were opportunities to meet foreign manufacturers and distributors. They also enabled the company to see what was happening on a global level.
Series 5: Financial Records, 1948-1982
These records include financial information for Nordic Ware and other Dalquist interests, including Maid of Scandinavia Company, when it was still joined with Northland Aluminum Products, and the Minnesota Brand of Cookware. The intermixing of financial reports, invoices and receivables, petty cash receipts, and bank statements for the various enterprises demonstrates the close relationship of all of the beginning operations of the Dalquist family. There are many examples of consolidated financial information in the records including the balance sheets, combined financial reports, income statements, and the audit reports. Of particular interest is the accounting ledger (1949-1950) for Plastics for Industry, the Dalquist brothers' original company. It has handwritten entries and shows the company's simplified bookkeeping system. It also provides important financial data on the startup capital and the progress in the first year of business.
Reports created by the research firm Dunn and Bradstreet contain information submitted by the Dalquists to prove their credit worthiness to lenders. Several loan agreements document the company's practice of borrowing money on future earnings in order to meet operating expenses and finance innovation. Machinery owned by Nordic Ware is listed in several factory inventories. The firm also leased machinery instead of buying in order to save money. Inventory summaries (1950-1978) detail the numbers and value of the unsold product then on hand.
Though Nordic Ware stock was never traded publically, there was an employee shareholder plan that included profit sharing. Records in this subseries document the evolution and operation of the plan, including one employee's case for a public offering of the company stock. At some point Dave Dalquist did consider making the company public but decided to maintain private ownership. The emphasis on taking pride and ownership in the company was often repeated in memoranda that Dalquist wrote to employees about stock options. The records show that he was very conscious of morale and high standards of work within the company.
Series 6: Legal Records, 1962-1978
The bulk of these records deals with trademark issues, especially Nordic Ware's creation, licensing, and protection of the "Bundt" mark. Included are copies of correspondence with the law firms that handled applications to the Patent and Trademark Office and correspondence from that office. Correspondence and legal papers document licensing negotiations with Pillsbury and others. In several instances Nordic Ware took legal steps when the Bundt Pan trademark was being misused.
Series 7: Recipes and Cookbooks, 1966-2004, undated
This series is comprised of a large selection of cookbooks and recipe files maintained by Dotty Dalquist and reflect her active role in business activities. She did much of her cooking and experimenting in a test kitchen in her own home and was integral to the preparation of foods to be photographed in Nordic Ware products. These photographs demonstrated the use of the products and were included in the advertisements, catalogs, and product or recipe brochures.
Dotty Dalquist kept recipes, product booklets, notes, and other materials to aid in the development of her own recipes. She organized much of the material by food type, but she also had several files for specific Nordic Ware products. The Bundt Pan was a major product, and the files on it reflect that. As Nordic Ware sought new ways to promote the use of its products, Dalquist's development of new and inventive recipes was a major part of that effort.
Subseries 7.2: Bundt Pan Cookbooks, 1966-2004
Nordic Ware published several books by Dotty Dalquist to promote use of the Bundt Pan. Pillsbury and other firms also published their own books. Pillsbury incorporated its products into the recipes to promote the dual product relationship between the Bundt Pan and the Pillsbury brand of cake mixes. These books were sold in stores and added as premiums to go along with the purchase of the other products.
Subseries 7.3: Other Recipe and Public Relations Materials, 1970-1996, undated
Recipe contests and a cookbook were among the efforts to involve employees with the Nordic Ware products and to generate new recipes and ideas. These files include photographs and entries and correspondence about these employee activities.
A file of correspondence, mainly to and from Dotty Dalquist, concerns problems consumers encountered using specific recipes that she had published. Consumers also wrote about recipes they had tried on their own and could not get satisfactory results with a Nordic Ware product. Dalquist's problem-solving efforts were an example of the personal customer service in which Nordic Ware took pride.
Series 8: Non-Nordic Ware Reference Materials, 1940-2001, undated
The materials in this series were used by Nordic Ware as reference resources. They have been organized into subseries by type.
Dotty Dalquist collected cookbooks published by a wide range of manufacturers and trade organizations. The cookbooks are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the sponsor. Many companies, such as Pillsbury and General Foods, put out these kinds of books to promote their own brands. This may have influenced Dalquist's creation of her own Bundt Pan cookbook.
Subseries 8.2: Product Guides (some with recipes), 1940-1992, undated
These product guides, for appliances and other items used in Dotty Dalquist's kitchen, include use instructions and, often, recipes. Nordic Ware often included recipes in the print materials packaged with its products and associated with its advertising.
Subseries 8.3: Home and Food Related Ephemera, 1950-1980, undated
These materials include booklets of general household hints, recipe cards published by various organizations, and information on food processes.
Subseries 8.4: Periodicals, 1967-2001
Several scrapbooks in this subseries contain clippings from various trade publications. Some focus on Nordic Ware and Northland Aluminum Products in articles or advertisements while others contain industry, including competitors', product advertisements. There are several issues of trade periodicals with Nordic Ware related stories. Trade press clippings also are found in Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004, Subseries 3, Public Relations, 1948-1992.
Most of these newsletters were for reference use with Nordic Ware's microwave cookware projects. With its extensive line of these microwave products, there was an active effort to stay up to date with the field. The firm also tried to find different kinds of foods and recipes that could be prepared using a microwave oven.
Series 9: Photographs, 1940s-2006, undated
This series consists of a wide range of photographic prints re-housed in archival sleeves and assembled into a single binder. The photographs are arranged roughly by image content and document the Dalquist family and employees; factory and offices scenes, including a series of black and white images by Mel Jacobsen, a commercial photographer; and product displays at trade shows and other locations. The photographs also include a few images of Nordic Ware products and of baked foods and black and white images of plastic molds created by Plastics for Industry. Most of the photographs are undated and many are unidentified. There is a View Master viewer with one viewing card containing photographs assembled for Nordic Ware's sixtieth anniversary in 2006. Series 2, David Dalquist Files, includes five photographs of foods baked in Bundt Pans. Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995, has photographs of a factory outlet store and product displays.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into nine series.
Series 1: Historical and Background Materials, 1940s-2006
Series 2: David Dalquist Files, 1963-1993
Series 3: Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004
Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995
Subseries 2, Promotional and Trade Sales Materials, 1958-2004
Subseries 3, Public Relations, 1948-1992
Series 4: Engineering Department Records, 1950-1994
In 1946, the year he returned from Navy service in the Pacific, H. David (Dave) Dalquist (1918-2005) joined his brother Mark to launch a new manufacturing firm, Plastics for Industry, in Minneapolis. The two University of Minnesota graduates soon were making foundry patterns and industrial plastic products for area businesses, as well as aluminum consumer cookware. Among their earliest products were ebelskiver pans, krumkake irons, and rosette irons, essential kitchen tools for the area's large Scandinavian population. Their first employee, Donald Nygren, remained as head designer for many decades.
In 1950, the brothers bought Northland Aluminum Products, a small firm with a line of "Nordic Ware" products including griddles and steak platters. The same year, Dave Dalquist created a cast aluminum, fluted cake pan at the request of two local women, members of the Hadassah organization. The women sought to replicate a heavy mold used in Europe. Northland Aluminum registered the trademark "Bundt" for the new product and began to sell it to local department stores. (The women sold manufacturing "seconds" as a fund raiser for their group.) Mark Dalquist created a firm, Maid of Scandinavia, to market products by mail. It separated from Northland Aluminum in 1963. Over the years, Northland Aluminum increasingly used "Nordic Ware" to identify itself for marketing and public relations purposes.
Northland Aluminum created a subsidiary finishing and coating firm, Northland Color Anodizing Company, in 1962. In 1964, Northland became one of the first to license the use of Teflon from its inventor, DuPont, and non-stick products became an important part of the company's line. Northland also did coating work for many industries including medical, computer, and commercial food processing. For many years Northland also had a division to produce heads for video recording machines. Product sales reached $1,000,000 in 1964.
During the 1960s, Nordic Ware grew slowly, gradually increasing its product line to include specialty baking and cookware items and stove-top cookware. The company also expanded its production capacity and built its sales and marketing capabilities, including a national network of sales representatives working on commission. Dorothy Dalquist, Dave's wife, played a vital role in the company's history. She joined him at crucial annual sales conventions to demonstrate products, tested new products, and developed recipes for them in her home kitchen. Additionally, she represented the firm in public relations activities.
Although the Bundt Pan was only one of many Nordic Ware products, it became a national celebrity in 1966 when a Texas woman used it for her prize-winning Tunnel of Fudge Cake in the immensely popular Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. In 1970, Nordic Ware licensed the Bundt trademark to Pillsbury for use with a line of cake mixes. Customers received a cake pan at a small additional price with the purchase of the packaged mix. Although this pan was spun of light aluminum, not cast like the original models, the Pillsbury promotion was very successful. In addition to the classic Bundt design, the company began producing special designs, including a cathedral, a castle, a rose, a heart, and, in 2006, a stadium shaped pan. The Bundt Pan continues to be the most popular cake pan in America, and the company estimates it has sold sixty million pans over the past six decades.
Despite the steady popularity of the Bundt Pan, Dalquist and his firm knew that the spike in Bundt Pan sales resulting from the Pillsbury promotion was temporary, and they continued their strategy of seeking new products to buoy overall sales revenues. In 1978 Nordic Ware developed a "new thermoset plastic molding technology to create an extensive line of cookware designed to work in both conventional and microware ovens."
In these same years, as microwave oven use rapidly spread, Nordic Ware developed its second celebrity product. Designed by the company's own engineers, the Micro-Go-Round was promoted in print and television advertising and is still its most successful product. Since then, Nordic Ware has introduced a wide range of new products, some of them successful (for example, nonstick Barbecue Grill Cookware), others not (including a device to create convection currents in a baking oven and a bicentennial cake platter). Northland Aluminum holds at least twenty-five patents for its products.
Today David Dalquist (born 1949) -- son of founder "Dave Dalquist" and, like his father, an engineer -- heads Nordic Ware. He has been involved with the company for his entire working life with major executive responsibilities since the early 1980s. David Dalquist's mother, Dotty, is on the Board of Directors and serves as Corporate Secretary. David's three sisters—Corrine, Linda, and Susan—are also involved in the business. The firm employs between 200 and 400 people and continues, as a point of pride, to manufacture its products in the United States. The family has refused numerous buyout offers. Nordic Ware has managed to design and market products for the large, low price retailers, including Wal-Mart, and for the upscale, specialty gourmet market. Williams-Sonoma, a leader in the latter field, has exclusive sales for a small number of new Nordic Ware products each year.
For its sixtieth anniversary, Nordic Ware produced a company history, H. David Dalquist, The Nordic Ware Saga: An Entrepreneur's Legacy (Kirk House Publishers, Minneapolis, 2006). The volume provides edited recollections of "Dave," many family members, and other employees drawn from oral history interviews. This finding aid is based largely on that information, other historical sources within the collection, and visits to Nordic Ware offices by National Museum of American History staff members Paula Johnson and Nanci Edwards (June 2006) and Paula Johnson and John Fleckner (August 2006).
Related Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds thirty-six objects from Nordic Ware (Accession # 2007.0034), including Bundt Pans in a variety of shapes, foundry patterns and molds for Nordic Ware products, a wood panel display of products manufactured by Plastics for Industry, three versions of the Micro-Go-Round, and other kitchenware products.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Dorothy M. Dalquist and H. David Dalquist in 2007.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Ralph H. Baer was a German-born ordnance specialist, inventor, and engineer. He was a pioneer of early videogame technology. The papers include autobiographical materials; firearms notes, manuscripts, and photographs; and videogame and television engineering notes, diagrams, schematics, and video documentation.
Scope and Contents:
The Ralph Baer Papers include autobiographical materials and an extended oral history interview. The Papers also include materials about military small arms created by Baer during his World War II service. The largest portion of the collection documents Baer's work on video games.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 12 series.
Series 1: Autobiographical Documents, 1962-2006
Subseries 1.1: Manuscript, book and other documents, 1962-2006
Subseries 1.2: Other Media: CDs, VHS videos, periodical, 1991, 2000-2003
Series 2: WW II Small Arms Documents, 1943-1953
Subseries 2.1: Correspondence, 1950-1953
Subseries 2.2: Writings and notes, 1943-1948
Subseries 2.3: Drawings and schematics, undated
Subseries 2.4: Manuals and encyclopedias, 1943
Subseries 2.5: Photographs, 1945
Series 3: Hans Otto Mauksch Materials, 1944-1964
Subseries 3.1: Personal background information, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1964
Subseries 4.4: TV game development documentation, 1966-1968
Series 5: Sanders Associates, Transitron, and Van Norman Industries, 1952-2003
Series 6: Product Development Documents, 1974-2015
Series 7: Product Guides and Technical Support, 1943-2011
Series 8: Legal and Patent Documents, 1966-2014
Series 9: Writings and Notes, 1946-1999
Series 10: Miscellaneous, 1961-2012
Series 11: Correspondence, 1983-2014
Series 12: Publicity and Awards, 1979-2015
Biographical / Historical:
Ralph H. Baer (1922-2014) was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1938. A graduate of the National Radio Institute (1940), Baer worked as a radio technician in the New York City area, servicing all types of home and auto radios. During World War II, Baer served in the United States Army, one year stateside, and two years in Europe. He was assigned to Military Intelligence and became an expert on military small arms. Baer returned to the United States with eighteen tons of foreign small arms for use in exhibits at Aberdeen, Maryland; Springfield, Massachusetts Armory; and Ft. Riley, Kansas.
After the war, Baer attended the American Television Institute of Technology in Chicago, graduating with a BS in television engineering. In 1949, Baer joined a small electro medical equipment firm, Wappler, Inc., as their chief engineer. He designed and built surgical cutting machines, epilators, and low frequency pulse generating muscle-toning equipment. In 1951, Baer moved to Loral Electronics of Bronx, New York as a senior engineer, designing power line carrier signaling equipment for IBM. During 1952-1956, Baer worked at Transitron, Inc., in New York City as a chief engineer and later as vice president. In 1956, Baer joined Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire building airborne radar components. He became manager of the Electronic Design Department at Sanders and eventually Division Manager and Chief Engineer for Equipment Design. Baer retired in 1987.
At Sanders in 1966, Baer began an independent project experimenting with ways for consumers to interact with standard home television sets. Development of interactive TV Game (TVG) ideas became a company-supported project continued by Baer and assisted by William H. Harrison and William T. Rusch (download the TV Game chronology prepared by Ralph Baer in 2006). By mid-1967, ping pong videogames were played inside Sanders, patent disclosures were applied for, and hardware was designed. Baer and his associates called the devices they were developing "boxes" and numbered the various versions one through seven. In 1971, Magnavox became Sanders Associates's first videogame licensee. Between 1972 and 1975, Magnavox produced and sold over 700,000 units of Odyssey, a set of games played on its television receivers. Atari became a licensee in 1976 after the first of many lawsuits won by Sanders in pursuit of patent infringements.
During his tenure at Sanders and thereafter, Baer was a prolific inventor. His creations included many electronic toys and games and other consumer electronic products. Among the better known products based on Baer's work are Milton Bradley's Simon, Galoob's Smarty Bear Video, and Kenner's Laser Command. In 2004 President George W. Bush awarded Baer the National Medal of Technology.
Baer married Dena Whinston in 1952 and they had three children, James, Mark, and Nancy. Ralph Baer died on December 6, 2014, at the age of 92.
Related Materials:
Materials at the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Ralph H. Baer Innovative Lives Presentation, August 15, 2009 (AC1179)
The presentation documents a moderated conversation about Baer's life and work. Baer reenacts, with his partner William Harrison, the first time he played "Odyssey," the first home video game for the consumer market, which he invented, and answers questions from the audience. Materials include original video (born digital), master videos, and reference videos.
Materials at Other Organizations
Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong
Ralph H. Baer Papers, 1968-2010 inclusive; 1975-1998 bulk
The Ralph H. Baer papers are a compilation of correspondence, game designs, drawings, notes, reference materials, photographs, product descriptions, digital videos, schematics, electronic components, and manuals utilized by Ralph H. Baer throughout his lengthy career in the toy and game industry. The bulk of the materials are from 1975 through 1998.
U.S. Ordnance Museum, Fort Lee, Virginia
Materials consist of data on foreign small arms brought back from Europe in 1946 by Ralph H. Baer.
Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York
Holdings include set of seven recreations of "TV game" prototypes originally created between 1966 and 1969, donated by pioneering game developer Ralph Baer. One of Baer's game prototypes, known as the "Brown Box," was licensed by Magnavox and released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first commercial home video game console.
University of Texas, Austin, Briscoe Center for American History
Ralph H. Baer "Brown Box" replica, 1952-1983, 2006-2012
The Ralph H. Baer "Brown Box" replica includes a fully-functional replica of Ralph Baer's "Brown Box," the prototype video game console that was used as the basis of the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. The collection also contains related research materials.
Separated Materials:
The Division of Medicine and Science holds artifacts related to this collection including early video game prototypes and TV Game products.
TV Game Unit #1 (TVG#1); 1966; vacuum tube spot generator with Heathkit IG-62 Generator (See Accession 2006.0102.01)
Heathkit IG-62; used with TVG #1 (See Accession 2006.0102.02)
TV Game Unit #2 (TVG #2), aka the "Pump Unit," 1967; large aluminum chassis with wooden "pump" handle (See Accession 2006.0102.03)
TV Game Unit #7 (TVG#7), aka "Brown Box," 1967/1968; prototype for Magnavox Odyssey (See Accession 2006.0102.04)
Cardboard program cards for use with Brown Box (See Accession 2006.0102.05)
Lightgun, 1967/1968; game accessory for Brown Box (See Accession 2006.0102.06)
TV Game Unit #8, 1968; "de/dt" (velocity responsive) ballgame chassis for use with Brown Box (See Accession 2006.0102.07)
Magnavox Odyssey (Model ITL200) video game unit, 1972; with all accessories in the original carton (See Accession 2006.0102.08)
Milton-Bradley Company SIMON handheld microprocessor-control game, 1978 (See Accession 2006.0102.09)
Ideal Toy Company MANIAC microprocessor-control game, 1979, in original box with game instructions (See Accession 2006.0102.10)
Golf Game accessory, 1968; golf ball mounted on joystick handle for use with Brown Box (See Accession 2006.0102.11
"Brown Box" programming card, target shooting, 1967 (See Accession 2006.0102.12)
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Ralph H. Baer in 2003.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use. Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection includes press clippings, awards, honorary degrees, and photographs of Ramsey Lewis Jr., renowned jazz pianist. The majority of the collection is press clippings relating to Lewis's social appearances, performances, and CD releases from the early 1990s-2007.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the life and career of Ramsey Lewis Jr., famous jazz pianist, and later, host of a popular syndicated radio talk show and television program. Though the majority of the collection consists of press clippings relating to Lewis's social appearances, performances, and CD releases from the early 1990s to the present, it also includes photographs from his early life and career, as well as selected correspondence tied heavily to events mentioned in the press clippings and a very small amount of personal materials. The collection contains programs and menus from social and fundraising galas, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photographs, slides, awards, honorary degrees and diplomas, and a medal. Those interested in Ramsey Lewis, as well as the social scene of Chicago in the 1990s, will find this collection useful.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series.
Series 1, Professional Materials, 1993-2007, undated
Series 2, Personal Materials, 1950-1994, undated
Series 3, Awards, Honors, and Honorary Degrees, 1989-2009, undated
Series 4, Photographic Materials, 1945-2007, undated
Series 5, Scrapbooks, 1972-1982, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr., an American jazz composer and pianist, was born in Chicago, Illinois to Ramsey Lewis Sr. and Pauline Lewis on May 27, 1935. His musical training began at the age of four with piano lessons. Lewis has achieved much success as a musician, as well as, a radio and television talk show host. In addition, he has organized and served for a number of educational programs in an effort to promote jazz. He has received recognition and numerous awards for his work.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
John and Devra Hall Levy Papers, NMAH.AC.1221
W. Royal Stokes Collection, of Music Publicity Photoprints, Interviews and Posters, NMAH.AC.0766
Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program Collection, NMAH.AC.0808
Pat and Chuck Bress Jazz Portrait Photographs, NMAH.AC.1219
Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection, NMAH.AC.0540
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Ramsey Lewis Jr. in March 2008.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Records relating to Small Beginnings, Inc., a medical supply company that designs, invents, manufactures, and distributes products for premature infants. The records include contacts with distributors, correspondence, product advertisements, patent and trademark files, photographs, a scrapbook, and oral history interviews with Kenneth S. Croteau, Mary S. "Sharon" Rogone, and Philip N. Rogone.
Scope and Contents:
Series 1, Background Information, 1983-2006, is divided into nine subseries and includes articles of incorporation for the business, correspondence, corporate identity branding, and journal articles and magazine and newspaper clippings about Small Beginnings, Inc. The correspondence consists of thank you letters from hospitals and medical centers for visits made by Small Beginnings staff during the holiday season and a September 2001 letter from Kenny Loggins discussing his partnership with Small Beginnings to distribute his CD "More Songs from Pooh Corner." The Entrepreneur packet was created by Kenneth Croteau of Caring Creations, Inc., to assist potential inventors/entrepreneurs in developing ideas into a patented product and bringing it to the marketplace.
Series 2, Oral History Interviews and Logs, 18 January 2007, is divided into two subseries. Subseries 1 contains reference CD-ROM copies for listening and Subseries 2 consists of master CD-ROMs. The interviews were created digitally using a Marantz PMD 660 recorder. The oral history interviews were conducted by National Museum of American History staff members Maggie Dennis and Judy Chelnick. The interviewees include Kenneth S. Croteau, Mary S. "Sharon" Rogone, and Philip N. Rogone, founders of and business partners in Small Beginnings, Inc. Each interview has a time code log. Full text transcripts do not exist.
Series 3, Product Information, 1994-2006, is divided into four subseries.
Subseries 1, Small Beginnings, Inc. Products, 1998-2004, contains documentation on the products made available by Small Beginnings, Inc. The company offers a wide variety of products for neonatal intensive care units and newborn nurseries. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by product name. The bulk of the documentation consists of printed product literature that was disseminated to distributors and/or at conferences. In some instances, such as the Bili-Bonnet, Climate Cover, and Pacee Pacifier—correspondence, testing information, and sketches exist.
Subseries 2, Disclosure Statements, 2000-2003, contains waivers and agreements between Small Beginnings, Inc., and individuals which state that an idea or ideas will not be used or revealed to others.
Subseries 3, Competitors, 1994-2004, includes files on competitors in the neonatal medical supply business. The documentation is primarily product literature and company overviews. The subseries are arranged alphabetically by company name.
Subseries 4, Miscellaneous, 1999, 2001, undated, contains printed paper examples of the fabric Small Beginnings used on its products and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) booklet designed for parents of preemie infants. The booklet provides a checklist of tasks for parents to be conscious of when caring for their premature infant.
Series 4, Sales Records, 1993-2006
Subseries 1, Catalogs, 2001-2005, contains catalogs in hard copy and on CD-ROM for distributors and other interested parties.
Subseries 2, Price lists, 2000, 2003, undated, includes itemized pricing lists for all Small Beginnings products and special pricing lists designed for hospital admission kits. There is also a pricing list with similar competitor products and the savings gained by using Small Beginnings products.
Subseries 3, Distributor Information, 1993-2006, consists of documentation on distributors around the United States who are distributing or considering distributing Small Beginnings, Inc., products. Arranged alphabetically by the name of the distributor, this subseries consists primarily of contracts—the independent distributor contract—between Small Beginnings, Inc., and the distributor.
The contract details the sales representatives appointment, terms, permitted sales, distributor sales and service obligation, supplier organizations, prices, orders, payment, shipment, trademark protection, no competitive products, proprietary rights protection, warranty, disclaimer, and warrant service, limitations or remedies and liability, termination, taxes, duties, import permits, approvals, and general provisions. In some instances, there is correspondence with a distributor and sales report information detailing the product type, cost and to which hospital it was sold.
The Advanced Medical Systems file also contains vendor sales information. This report details what Small Beginnings product(s) were sold, to whom, when, how many, the price, and any shipping details.
The HealthTrust file documents a "purchasing group." A purchasing group negotiates with suppliers to provide member facilities with high quality supplies, equipment, and other services at competitive prices through national, regional and local supply agreements. Small Beginnings did not enter into a formal agreement with HealthTrust but explored the idea of becoming a prospective vendor.
Subseries 4, Licenses and Agreements, 1998-2005, includes license and compensation agreements with five individuals (Eileen Clayton, Linda Cook, Diane D'Eugenio, Ilija Kainovic, and Kathleen Porter) for a variety of products. The agreements cover the definitions, license grants, royalties and payments; term and termination; best effort; breach and cure; patent, applications, prosecution and ownership; new inventions; infringement; representations by the licensee; force majeure; and other rights and conditions.
There are also letters of agreement for purchase and compensation documents. These agreements between Small Beginnings, Inc., and said party states what the product/idea is, how much it will cost, if the product/idea will be commercially produced and marketed, and if the product/idea can be altered. There is one agreement among the officers of Small Beginnings, Inc., dated 1999 which states that any and all future intellectual property(s) and/or product(s) and/or idea(s) shall be the property of the individual and not Small Beginnings, Inc.
Subseries 5, Finances, 2000-2003, contains sales summary data, expense allocations, invoices, and cost analyses. The sales summary provides an itemized breakdown of Small Beginnings's inventory for the period January 1, 2000 to July 10, 2000. The expense allocation spreadsheet of January 2000 to July 2000 provides a detailed breakdown of salary payments, office equipment, goods sold, and other line items such as printing, attorney's fees, and shipping supplies. Also provided is the total actual expenses, total income, difference, and starting and ending balance information. The invoice reports provide information about the customer, the invoice number, date due (0-30 days, 31-60 days or 61-90 days or over 90 days), amount due, purchase order number and the date paid. The projected cash flow from January 2000 to May 2000 details the amount of cash taken in and cash spent. The cost analyses provide a breakdown by list price, materials, manufacturing, labor costs, and packaging for six products: Bili-Bonnet, Climate Cover, Iso-sphere Covers, Baby-Crates, Security Baby Wrap, and Baby Blotters, Preemie Swaddler, Preemie Gown, Privacy Poncho, Bed Buddie, Posture Pillow, Preemie Nest, Bebeonkers and Pacee Pacifier.
Subseries 6, Neonatal Conference Programs, 1998-2002, consists primarily of conference programs and, in some instances, only the program cover.
Subseries 7, American Hospital Association Guide (partial), 1998, contains a partial print out of hospitals located in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio.
Series 5, Patent and Trademark Files, 1991-2002, contains copies of patent and trademark information relating to Small Beginnings, Inc., products. The trademark file includes documentation with the law firm of Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP and the United States Patent and Trademark office for Small Beginnings, Peeweeonkers, Bebeonkers, Nasalonkers (all infant nasal suction devices), and Doctor Nurse Apparel, (DNA) trademark logos. The patent files contain correspondence, drawings and narrative text for Bebeonkers, Bili-Bonnet, Climate Cover, Pacee Pacifier, Positioning Device, Preemie Nest, and Privacy Poncho.
Series 6, Photographs and Scrapbook, 1987-2007
Subseries 1, Photographs, 2000-2001, are arranged by topic and include color and color photocopies documenting some of Small Beginnings products, a 2001 Christmas party, a 2000 neonatal conference, and office and factory images.
Subseries 2, Digital images, 2007, consists of office, factory and employee images taken by National Museum of American History staff members Judy Chelnick, Maggie Dennis, and Alison Oswald.
Subseries 3, Scrapbook, 1987-2000, consists of nineteen pages featuring photographs of employees, products and the factory, as well as printed product information.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into six series.
Series 1, Background Information, 1983-2006
Subseries 1, Articles of Incorporation, 1997-2005
Subseries 2, Small business certification, 2006
Subseries 3, Women's Business Enterprise Council, 2004-2006
Subseries 7, American Hospital Association Guide (partial), 1998
Series 5, Patent and Trademark Files, 1991-2002
Series 6, Photographs and Scrapbook, 1987-2007
Subseries 1, Photographs, 2000-2001
Subseries 2, Digital images, 2007
Subseries 3, Scrapbook, 1987-2000
Biographical / Historical:
Small Beginnings, Inc., of Hesperia, California, was founded by Mary S. Rogone and her business partner, Austin J. Webber, II in the late 1990s. It officially incorporated on November 21, 1997, in the State of Nevada. The company specializes in products conceived and developed by healthcare professionals, specifically nurses who work with premature infants. The name "small beginnings" originated from the small amount of money used to start the company and for the tender age of the patients it serves. The company motto is "Clinicians on a Mission" with the entire company dedicated to making better, more innovative products for premature infants.
Mary Sharon Shoffstall was born August 8, 1942 and raised in the San Bernardino Hills of California. She attended Huntington Park High School where she concentrated on math and science and graduated in 1960. She earned degrees as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) in 1976 and as a registered nurse (RN) in 1980 from San Bernardino Valley College. Rogone worked a variety of nursing jobs—labor and delivery and surgical—but found her niche in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
In the late 1980s, Rogone was motivated by her work in the neonatal intensive care units at St. Bernardine's Hospital (now St. Bernardine Medical Center) and San Bernardino County Hospital in California to create a better phototherapy mask for premature infants suffering from bilirubin. "Bilirubin is a brownish yellow substance found in bile. It is produced when the liver breaks down old red blood cells. The most obvious symptom of high bilirubin levels is jaundice, a condition in which the skin and whites of the eyes appear yellow. Therefore, some babies who develop jaundice may be treated with special lights (phototherapy) or a blood transfusion to reduce their bilirubin levels."
Rogone's phototherapy mask was fashioned out of a variety of hospital materials and was designed to take the pressure off the ocular socket, transfer it to the cheekbone and reduce the ability of light to penetrate the mask. With no objections from fellow nurses or doctors, Rogone developed the Bili-Bonnet Phototherapy Mask and began using it on infants in the NICU. Encouraged by Austin Webber, a medical sales representative she met at the hospital, Rogone formed a financial partnership with Webber. Both Rogone and Webber contributed $1,500.00 to start the business. Webber provided knowledge about materials, manufacturing processes, and distribution while Rogone supplied the ideas and medical background. Rogone began the patent process for the mask in 1992 and was granted US Patent # 5,613,502 for a "Photo therapy eye mask" in 1997. This invention launched Rogone's inventive career and her company, Small Beginnings, Inc.
In 1995, Sharon married Phil Rogone, a respiratory therapist and physician's assistant she met while working at St. Bernardine's Hospital. Phil soon joined the company as Vice President for Marketing and began attending tradeshows to promote the company's growing line of products. In 1998, Ken Croteau, a respiratory specialist and close friend of Phil and Sharon's, joined the staff of Small Beginnings, Inc., as the business manager. Croteau established the company's website, www.small-beginnings.com, and began to recruit distributors. Croteau, along with Sharon Rogone, Philip Rogone, Winnifred Croteau, and Ted Lopez founded Caring Creations, Inc., a separate corporation on May 1, 2002. Caring Creations, Inc., is a vehicle intended to launch Small Beginnings products into the retail market. By 2000, Sharon Rogone left full-time nursing to focus on the company as Chief Executive Officer.
As the company grew, more products were developed. The company now offers: Bebeonkers (oral suction device), Lil' and Nu' Pacee Pacifiers, Cuddle Buns™ Diapers; Preemie Nest (swaddler and positioning device); Bed Buddy (positioning device); Baby Blotters (absorbent, moisture proof plastic blotters); Abdominal Pillow; Head Pillow; Wedge Pillow; Preemie Gown; Arm immobilier; Baby Crates™ (allows moisture to flow through and away from the baby), Baby Blankee™; Isosphere™ covers (for NICU warmers); Universal Climate Cover II, and the Privacy Poncho.
Not all products are developed and patented by Small Beginnings, Inc. The company inspires and assists budding inventors, especially nurses and other healthcare professionals to realize their dreams. The Pacee Pacifier sold by Small Beginnings (US Patent # 4,909,253) was invented by Linda L. Cook from Infrapreem, Inc., of Connecticut. Cook licensed her invention to Small Beginnings in 1999 so they could commercially develop, produce and market the pacifier as the Lil' and Nu' Pacee Pacifier. In a 1998 letter Cook wrote to Rogone, "It is so good to know there are people like you in the world that are out there to help nurses. Thank you." Other products, such as the Cuddle Buns™ Diapers, are not patented, but the name is trademarked.
Related Materials:
Materials at the National Museum of American History
The Division of Medicine and Science holds artifacts related to this collection. See Accession # 2007.0022:
Bili-Bonnet mold with masking tape
Bili-Bonnet mold with foam inserts
Pacifier choking test stand (includes barbell and pacifier)
Pac black foam disk
Diapers from Children's Medical Ventures
Diaper, prototype 1 from Mexico, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Diaper, prototype 2 from Mexico, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Diaper, prototype 3 from Mexico, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Diaper, prototype 4 from Mexico, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Diaper, prototype 5, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Diaper, final version production model
Diaper, ultra preemie production model, 2003
Diaper, Pampers Preemie Swaddler from Procter & Gamble
Oral suction device, Bebeonkers
Pacifier, Original Pacee with product literature, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Pacifier, second generation with packaging, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Pacifier, Competitor's "Soothie" Children's Medical Ventures
Pacifier "Lil' Pacee," Small Beginnings, Inc.
Phototherapy mask, competitors, Children's Medical Ventures
Phototherapy mask, Bili-Bonnet #1, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Phototherapy mask, Bili-Bonnet #2, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Phototherapy mask, Bili-Bonnet #3, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Packaging, new Bili-Bonnet, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Packaging, old Bili-Bonnet, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Phototherapy mask, original preemie Bili-Bonnet, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Posture pillow sets for preemies, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Bed Buddy 36" for ultra preemies, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Preemie nest set, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Bendy Bumpy, Children's Medical Ventures
Bulb syringe "Adult Yankauer," taken from NICU
Suction tube with collecting bottle, Delee taken from NICU (for use after c-section)
Bulb and syringe, taken from NICU
Catheter, size 6 cut, for suction, taken from NICU
Catheter for oral and nasal use (by Ballard)
Pen, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Phototherapy mask, original ultra preemie, cat #OIC 38, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Pacifier, 'Nu' Pacee" in packaging, Small Beginnings, Inc.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Small Beginnings, Inc., through Mary S. Rogone, Philip N. Rogone, Austin J. Webber II, Kenneth S. Croteau and Winnifred D. Croteau, February 2007.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Arthur Ehrat invented and patented a breakaway basketball rim, fashioning his prototypes from bolts, metal braces and one key part: a piece of the heavy-duty coil spring on a John Deere cultivator. His invention helped to revolutionize the way basketball is played because players could slam dunk the ball with fewer injuries and without bending the rims or breaking backboards. This collection includes correspondence, legal documents --such as patent papers, litigation files and licensing agreements --photographs and sketches that relate to the basketball invention, as well as materials regarding his two field spreader patents and other invention ideas.
Scope and Contents:
The collection is divided into five series and consists of approximately seven cubic feet.
This collection includes correspondence and legal documents--such as patent papers, litigation files and licensing agreements--that relate to Arthur Ehrat's basketball goal, as well as materials regarding his field spreader patents and other invention ideas. The bulk of the collection is made up of attorney correspondence, patent infringement documents, and patent licensing documents. The collection also contains handwritten notes by Arthur Ehrat and his attorneys, sketches of his inventions, an oral history interview, and photographs.
Attorney McPherson Moore sent many of the legal documents and correspondence to Ehrat. These documents were assembled by the law firms for which Moore worked. The original order has been preserved.
The correspondence consists of letters from attorney McPherson Moore to Ehrat and from Moore or his associates to other attorneys regarding litigation, pending licensing agreements, and other actions. The correspondence contains handwritten notes, promotional materials for sporting goods companies, drafts of legal documents, copies of patents and other enclosures. The majority of the correspondence is copies.
Correspondence found throughout the collection is key to understanding the legal documents because it provides insight into the legal negotiations behind the settlement and licensing process, and the diligence necessary to protect a viable patent from infringement. Correspondence should be read in conjunction with litigation and licensing documents to gain a better sense of the negotiations between attorneys and how and why the legal documents were created.
Throughout this collection, reference is made to legal terms, including pleadings, production documents, discovery, patent infringement, file histories, and Bates numbers. Series 3, Civil Action and Settlement Records has numerous sets of pleadings, which are the legal documents filed in a lawsuit. These documents encompass complaints, petitions, answers, motions, declarations, and memoranda.
The discovery process is the effort of one party to a lawsuit to get information from the other party prior to a trial. This is done through depositions, requests for or production of documents, and interrogatories (written questions to the other party).6
Bates numbers --named after the Bates Automatic Numbering Machine patented in the late 1800s --are used to identify documents with a unique number. The parties to a lawsuit use these numbers to keep papers in order when they are sent to the other party during discovery. This collection contains sets of production documents stamped with Bates numbers. (See Series 3, Subseries 8: Ehrat v. Icon, Proform and K's Merchandise, 1984-1996)7
Patent infringement is "the manufacture and/or use of an invention or improvement for which someone else owns a patent issued by the government, without obtaining permission of the owner of the patent by contract, license or waiver."8
A patent file history (also called a file wrapper) is a folder maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It contains all of the correspondence and documents from a patent application.9 See Series 2, Subseries 2 for the file history of Ehrat's United States Patent No. 4,365,802.
Series 1: Background Materials, 1968-2005, 2011
This series, which is further divided into three subseries, comprises oral history interviews, early sketches of Ehrat's basketball goal, articles about slam dunking, Ehrat's breakaway rim, correspondence and notes, income and expense records (including legal expenses), photographs and facsimiles of photographs, and invoices from the components Ehrat purchased when he created prototypes. One receipt documents the heater Bob Copelin purchased for his new shed in 1975, around the time Ehrat began inventing. This was significant when Ehrat was trying to prove to the United States Patent Office that he had his idea before Frederick Tyner.
Subseries 1: Ehrat History, 1968-2005
Correspondence in this subseries includes a handwritten list of possible names for the basketball rim, one which Ehrat titled, "The Rebounder Has Been Tested." The correspondence also contains copies of letters sent to the United States Patent Office intended to prove that Ehrat's rim was unique; a letter from National Basketball Association saying that, after testing, it is going to use Kenneth Mahoney's (Toss Back) rim instead of Ehrat's; letters from basketball halls of fame; and copies of e-mail from the Smithsonian. This subseries has an original sketch of Ehrat's basketball goal with annotations. Also included is a 1 D2" VHS tape of Ehrat explaining the components he used to fashion his first breakaway rim prototypes and a news segment in which Ehrat was interviewed about his invention at the Chicago Board of Trade. The audio and video recordings contain some repetition of information.
Subseries 2: Photographs and Clippings, 1973-2005
Color photocopies of photographs depicting early rims; a birthday gathering for Ehrat's father, William Ehrat, circa 1974-1975 (used to help prove that he was working on the rim before Frederick Tyner); Ehrat giving a rim to Virden High School; Ehrat with sportscaster Dick Vitale; and a studio shot of his daughters, Rose, Jo, Sharon, Jane, and Linda.
Three photographs in this subseries show prototype rims with coil springs. Ehrat holds up one of these photographs in the video history, but he does not discuss the photographs' origin. There are no markings of any kind on the photographs.
Subseries 2 also contains field photographs taken by John Fleckner, National Museum of American History staff, in May 2005. Field photographs include: the grain elevator Ehrat managed; rim prototypes; and a donated rim hanging on the gym wall at Virden High School.
Articles in this subseries are from the Virden Recorder, The State Journal-Register, Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and Kentucky Living. The topics covered include collapsible rims and breakaway rims; Ehrat and his invention; and the Smithsonian Institution's interest in the breakaway rim. Also included is a clipping from Farmers Elevator Co.'s meeting minutes from December 15, 1973, in which the board voted to relinquish rights to any patent or product created by Ehrat.
Subseries 3: Oral History Interview, 2005
A May, 2005, interview of Ehrat by John Fleckner at Ehrat's home in Virden, IL. Ehrat discusses his background, attorney Ralph Staubly, basketball rims he built, and a slam dunk contest that his nephew Randy Albrecht helped organize in the early 1980s at St. Louis Community College. Subseries 3 also contains Digital video disks (DVD) in which Ehrat discusses the documents he sent to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History. There is some repetition of topics discussed in the audio and video recordings.
Series 2: Patent Records for Basketball Rim, 1865-1984 (bulk 1970s-1984)
This series, divided into four subseries, contains copies of patents used as research or as prior art for Ehrat's patent application, a file history of the patent, correspondence/notes from Ehrat and his attorneys, and legal papers sent from Ehrat's first attorney, Ralph Staubly, to McPherson Moore.
Subseries 1: Ehrat and Dittrich Patents, 1979-1984
Copies of Ehrat's United States Patent No. 4,365,802, deformation-preventing swingable mount for basketball goals and William Dittrich's two patents, United States Patent No. 4,151,989, basketball practice device and United States Patent No. 4,465,277, basketball goal structure.
Subseries 2: Research and File History, 1865-1984
The complete patent file history consists of a list of actions taken (rejections, appeals, civil action filed) on the patent application for United States Patent No. 4,365,802. Pages 19-23 are copies of letters sent to United States Patent Office to establish the rim's unique qualities after the examiner's interference search found Frederick Tyner's patent (United States Patent No. 4,111, 420, Energy-absorbing basketball goal/backboard unit) and ruled Ehrat's invention was too similar.
Subseries 3: Correspondence and Notes, 1976-1984
Two sets of letters from acquaintances. The first set, 1977-1978, was sent to the United States Patent Office and provide a sense of the invention's unique quality. The second set, 1983-1984, consists of letters written by Ehrat's friends and was used in Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Mt. Vernon School District and Porter (Series 3, Subseries 1) to establish that Ehrat had his breakaway rim idea before Frederick Tyner. A letter in the correspondence folder for this litigation, dated February 23, 1984, mentions that copies of these letters were sent to Basketball Products International. Also in this subseries is a transcript of a phone conversation between Ehrat and attorney McPherson Moore about when Ehrat had the idea for a breakaway rim and who knew about it.
Subseries 4: Files from Ehrat's First Attorney, Ralph Staubly, 1976-1982
Includes the file about Ehrat sent from Ralph Staubly to McPherson Moore when Ehrat changed legal representation in 1983. The folder contains originals, copies, and drafts of documents sent to the United States Patent Office, some with annotations. Also included is a high school basketball rulebook, 1977-1978, and the notes Ralph Staubly used to write an affidavit for Ehrat's patent application in which Ehrat swears he invented before Frederick Tyner.
Series 3: Civil Action and Settlement Records, 1984-1996
This series is divided into eight subseries. It contains full and partial sets of case pleadings, with pleadings indices, from eight court cases, attorney correspondence and notes, depositions of Ehrat and Frederick Tyner, case judgments, and signed settlements.
In 1984, Ehrat and Basketball Products International were plaintiffs or defendants together in five civil action lawsuits that involved sporting goods companies, including Porter Equipment Company, Gared Company, and Toss Back. These lawsuits and their correspondence should be consulted in conjunction with one another.
Subseries 1: Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Mt. Vernon School District and Porter, 1984
Civil action, February 1984-June 1984: The complaint alleges patent infringement by sporting goods company Porter for manufacturing products embodying the invention, and infringement by Mt. Vernon School District (WA) for purchasing Porter basketball goals. Action dismissed June 11, 1984. This subseries contains the subpoena and deposition of Frederick Tyner regarding United States Patent No. 4,111, 420, Energy-absorbing basketball goal/backboard unit. It also contains plaintiff's exhibits, numbered 1-31, which include Tyner's notes, documents, and facsimiles of photographs related to his patented basketball goal.
Subseries 2: Porter Equipment Company v. Basketball Products International and Ehrat, 1984
Civil action, April 1984-June 1984: The complaint alleges that Ehrat's and Basketball Products International's patents are invalid and unenforceable and that Porter and Mt. Vernon School District did not infringe. Porter calls for dismissal or transfer of the case. The pleadings index for Vol. 1 has a note at the bottom that says "Start Vol. 2," but Vol. 2 is not in the collection.
Subseries 3: Gared Company v. Basketball Products International and Ehrat, 1984-1988
Civil action, March 1984-October 1984: This action is in response to letters sent by attorney McPherson Moore threatening a lawsuit if Gared Company does not cease manufacture of infringing goals. Gared Company files a complaint for declaratory judgment, calling the patent invalid and alleging unfair competition. A stipulated dismissal of complaint was signed by Moore and Ralph Kalish, Gared Company's legal counsel. Declaratory judgment is the judgment of a court which determines the rights of parties without ordering anything be done or awarding damages.
Of note in this subseries is the deposition of Ehrat regarding his involvement with Gared Company and the city of St. Louis, where the company is based. Gared Company's counsel, Ralph Kalish, asks Ehrat questions about his nephew, Randy Albrecht. Ehrat purchased 12 rims from Gared Company, on the advice of his nephew, for the purpose of building and testing his releasable basketball goals. Kalish tries to assess whether there was a profit motive and how Gared Company's goals factored into that.
Subseries 4: Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Gared Company, 1984
Civil action, April 1984-June 1984: Complaint filed against Gared Company and Athletic Supply (which purchased Gared Company goals) for patent infringement. The case was dismissed.
Subseries 5: Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Toss Back
Civil action, May 1984-June 1984: Complaint filed against Toss Back and the cities of Seattle and Tacoma (which purchased Toss Back basketball goals) for patent infringement. There is no evidence of a settlement or of court action. Toss Back signed a licensing agreement with Ehrat in 1985 (See Series 4, Licensing Agreements).
Subseries 6: Ehrat v. Gared Company and Nixdorff-Krein Industries, 1982-1990 (bulk 1987-1990)
Civil action, 1988-1990: Complaint filed against sports equipment company Gared and its parent company, Nixdorff-Krein Industries, for patent infringement. Request for passing case for settlement filed by Ehrat's attorney, McPherson Moore, and granted by the court. The signed settlement is in this subseries. This subseries has file histories of Gared Company patents. A file history (or file wrapper) is a folder kept at the United States Patent and Trademark Office that has all of the correspondence and documents from a patent application
Subseries 7: Ehrat v. Diversified Products, 1989-1994
Civil action, 1993: A complaint was filed against Diversified Products after a series of letters calling for the company to cease manufacture and sales of infringing basketball goals went unheeded. The parties were granted a consent judgment to settle out of court. The signed settlement is in this subseries.
Subseries 8: Ehrat v. Icon Health & Fitness Inc., Pro Form Fitness Products Inc., and K's Merchandise Mart, 1984-1996 (bulk 1994-1996)
The Icon Health & Fitness Inc. (hereinafter Icon) pleadings consist of two volumes, Vols. 2 and 3. Vol. 1 is missing. There is a draft of the first page of Ehrat's complaint against Icon in Box 9, Folder 3. A consent judgment was entered, and the parties settled out of court. The signed settlement is in this subseries.
There are two categories of production documents in this subseries, those for the plaintiff (three folders) and those for the defendant (seven folders), that have Bates numbers affixed to or printed on the bottom of the pages. Bates numbers are used to identify documents with a unique number. The parties to a lawsuit use these numbers to keep papers in order when they are sent to the other party during discovery.
The plaintiff's production documents include Bates numbers 1-205. Numbers 1-105 contain Ehrat's patent file history; numbers 107-205 are copies of Ehrat's licensing agreements through 1993.
In the defendant's production documents, one folder has Bates # I10001 and other numbered pages that are not in a particular order. Bates numbers I10068- I10882 include the file history for United States Patent No. 4,365,802, deformation-preventing swingable mount for basketball goals; correspondence among defendant's attorneys; copies of patents; and copies of licensing agreements through 1993.
Series 4: Licensing Agreements, 1982-2000 (bulk 1980s-1990s)
This series is divided into twenty-six subseries and encompasses materials pertaining to Ehrat's relationships with numerous companies that manufacture or sell sports equipment. These materials include correspondence and notes, licensing agreements and drafts of agreements, Dun and Bradstreet financial reports, catalogs, pamphlets, and other promotional materials. Ehrat and attorney McPherson Moore used the promotional materials to determine whether the companies were marketing or selling basketball goals that infringed on Ehrat's patent, then contacted the companies about licensing Ehrat's patent. With the exception of Subseries 1: Correspondence and Subseries 6: William Dittrich Patents, each subseries represents a different company.
To better understand Ehrat's relationships with these companies, researchers should consult Subseries 1: Correspondence, as well as the correspondence within specific subseries, in conjunction with licensing agreements and other documents in this series.
There are thirteen signed licensing agreements in this series, some of which bear original signatures. Ehrat's first licensee was with Basketball Products International, which signed an exclusive agreement in 1983. In November, 1984, after five civil action lawsuits in which Ehrat and Basketball Products International were either co-plaintiffs or co-defendants, the company signed a nonexclusive licensing agreement. Drafts of the agreements exist for some companies, but there is no evidence that the agreements were signed. In some cases, correspondence indicates which companies were not interested in entering into an agreement.
Ehrat's licensees include Huffy (signed May 1988); Basketball Products International, exclusive license (signed July 1983), nonexclusive license (signed November 1984); Toss Back (signed January 1985); Porter Equipment Company (signed 1985 and 1989); RDH Enterprises/Schutt (signed August 1991); Industrial Machine Specialties/Bison (signed January 1987); Lifetime Products (signed March 1989); Fisher-Price (owned by Quaker Oats, signed April 1988); Indian Industries/Harvard Sports (signed June 1991); McCullough (signed April 1990); and Sure Shot (signed March 1991).
Companies in this series without signed licensing agreements include Medart; Blazon-Flexible Flyer; Spang/Today's Kids; Sports and Leisure/Ideas That Sell; Wilson Sporting Goods; Hutch Sporting Goods; Aalco; Bergfeld Recreation; Future Pro; MacGregor; Pro-Bound; Architectural Design Products; and Hyland Engineering.
Settlements and licensing agreements that Ehrat signed with Gared Company, Diversified Products, and Icon appear only in Series 3, Civil Action and Settlement Records.
Subseries 6, William Dittrich Patents, contains correspondence and documents relating to the patent and royalty agreement Dittrich made with Ehrat in 1987. Dittrich had two basketball-related patents but had difficulty getting companies to license with him because there was confusion about his patents and those of Ehrat and Frederick Tyner. Dittrich contacted Ehrat's attorney, McPherson Moore, and they worked out an agreement. Ehrat acquired Dittrich's patents and they joined forces to attract licensing agreements and to split royalties and litigation settlements. Subseries 6 also has the transcript of a 1986 phone conference between William Dittrich and McPherson Moore regarding a possible joint agreement with Ehrat and the patent file history for United States Patent No. 4,151,989, basketball practice device. There is no file history for Dittrich's other patent, United States Patent No. 4,465,277, basketball goal structure, but there are pieces of the file history in this subseries. Subseries 6 also includes drafts and signed patent assignment papers and a signed licensing agreement between Ehrat and Dittrich, 1987.
Subseries 9, Lifetime Products, consists of itemized lists of attorney's fees from McPherson Moore for November 30, 1987, to February 28, 1989. The fees are for research, phone calls, photocopies, correspondence, and litigation documents for Ehrat v. Gared Company. The companies listed in these papers include Gared Company, Lifetime, Huffy, Fisher-Price, Sports and Leisure, Today's Kids, Toss Back, and Blazon.
Subseries 16, McCullough contains a Dunk-Kit (see Box 18), which Ehrat purchased in 1989. The Dunk-Kit is a set of springs and bolts that turn a set basketball goal into a breakaway goal. According to attorney McPherson Moore, the springs and bolts constituted an infringement of Ehrat's patent. McCullough disagreed with this assessment but eventually agreed to a monetary settlement.
Series 5: Field Spreader Patents and Other Ideas, 1977-2003
Subseries 1: Field Spreader Patents, 1977-2003
This subseries contains copies of Ehrat's two field spreader patents: United States Patent No. 4,358,054, field-sprayer tank-vehicle having means for on-site metering and mixing of soil-treating chemicals and United States Patent No. 4,588,127, material-spreading field vehicle having means for on-site metering and mixing of soil-treating chemicals. It also contains magazines, articles, and pamphlets on agricultural equipment and litigation documents between SoilTeq and Ag-Chem.
Subseries 2: Other Ideas, 1971-1998
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ehrat came up with ideas for other inventions, but none of them were patentable. This subseries has original sketches for "electric clippers with box for holding clippings;" a beverage can with multiple containers; and an "automobile refreshment temperature control." Included in the folders are letters that outline the ideas behind the inventions and the reasons they were not patented. Also included are copies of patents that relate to Ehrat's ideas.
Series 6: Toby Dittrich Files, 1889-1997
This series, which is further divided into five subseries, contains administrative records, prior art, patent records, correspondence, litigation materials, financial records, marketing and sales materials, photographs, and newspaper clippings from William A. (Toby) Dittrich. Dittrich invented the "Dunk King" break-away basketball rim in the mid 1970s while he was a physics professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State. Dittrich patented and marketed his rim with mixed success before selling the rights to his patents to Arthur Ehrat in the mid 1980s. The two agreed to market and license their products independently, and cooperatively share royalties and settlements from patent infringement cases.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series.
Series 1: Background materials, 1968-2005
Subseries 1: Ehrat History, 1968-2005, 2011
Subseries 2: Photographs and Clippings, 1973-2005
Subseries 3: Oral History, 2005
Series 2: Patent records for basketball rim,1865-1984
Subseries 1: Ehrat and Dittrich Patents, 1979-1984
Subseries 2: Research and File History, 1865-1984
Subseries 3: Correspondence and Notes, 1976-1984
Subseries 4: Files from First Attorney, Ralph Staubly, 1976-1982
Series 3: Civil action and settlement records, 1984-1996
Subseries 1: Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Mt. Vernon School District and Porter Equipment Company, 1984
Subseries 2: Porter Equipment Company v. Basketball Products International and Ehrat, 1984
Subseries 3: Gared Company v. Basketball Products International and Ehrat, 1984-1988
Subseries 4: Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Gared Company --Pleadings, 1984
Subseries 5: Basketball Products International and Ehrat v. Toss Back, 1984
Subseries 6: Ehrat v. Gared Company and Nixdorff-Krein Industries, 1982-1989 (bulk 1987-1989)
Subseries 7: Ehrat v. Diversified Products, 1989-1994
Subseries 8: Ehrat v. Icon Health & Fitness Inc., Pro Form fitness Products, Inc. and K's Merchandise Mart, 1984-1996 (bulk 1994-1996)
Series 4: Licensing agreements, 1982-2000 (bulk 1980s-mid-1990s)
Subseries 5: Other Inventions and Ideas, 1978-1980
Biographical / Historical:
Arthur Henry Ehrat was born December 20, 1924. He grew up on a farm near Shobonier, IL, east of St. Louis. Ehrat had four sisters and a brother: Dorothea, Ruth, Bernice, Grace and Walter. Growing up on a farm during the Great Depression, Ehrat learned farming skills, including milking, baling, and operating heavy equipment such as threshing machines. After graduating from Vandalia High School he moved to Wheaton, IL, to work on a farm. From the latter part of 1945 until 1947, Ehrat was an Army medic, stationed in Fort Sheridan, IL; Camp Atterbury, IN; Fort Meade, MD; and Manila, Philippines. After his Army service, Ehrat moved back to Illinois and spent a few years farming with his brother.
In the early 1950s Ehrat lived with his sister Bernice and her family in Minneapolis while attending a two-year course at Minneapolis Business College. Upon completion of the course, he returned to Virden, IL and worked at a grain elevator. Ehrat met Mary Mardell Worth in Virden. They were married June 27, 1954, and had five daughters: Rose, Jo, Sharon, Jane and Linda. Ehrat managed the grain elevator at Farmers Elevator Co. in Lowder, IL for nearly 30 years.
In the mid-1970s, Ehrat's nephew, Randy Albrecht, a coach at St. Louis University, mentioned that basketball players were slamming the basketball ball through the rim and hurting themselves, as well as bending or breaking the rims, which were affixed directly to the backboard. The bent rims had to be straightened, causing a delay of game. While Ehrat never had a strong interest in the game of basketball, Albrecht suggested his uncle, who was known as a tinkerer, come up with a safer basketball rim. The conversation sparked a few ideas. Ehrat bought a flimsy $20 basketball rim and began building a prototype.
Basketball fans during the 1940s and 1950s didn't see many slam dunks. Despite the leaping ability of stars Bob Kurland, George Mikan, and James Clifford Pollard, aka "the Kangaroo Kid," the dunk shot was considered showboating and was often done only in practice. Basketball players, whose average size was smaller in the mid-20th century, viewed the dunk as a low-percentage shot compared with the ubiquitous jump-shot.
In 1967, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) outlawed dunking. A few years later, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, who played professionally for the American Basketball Association's Virginia Squires, re-ignited excitement about basketball with his high-flying slams. In the first half of 1976, a few months before Ehrat first applied for a patent, the dunk was reinstated in college basketball.
At the professional level, flamboyant hoops star Darryl "Dr. Dunk" Dawkins shattered some glass backboards in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which prompted the National Basketball Association (NBA) to ban the shattering of backboards and make collapsible rims mandatory. The NBA's call for collapsible rims, along with the NCAA's reinstatement of the dunk, opened the door for innovations in basketball rims.
Collapsible rims, which folded down when pressure was applied to them, were the precursor to breakaway rims and had to be manually put back in place. Ehrat created a safer basketball rim that automatically snapped back after a slam dunk.
Ehrat's first rim, used a door spring. It was bolted to two plates, one that remained fastened while the other flexed down under pressure. The hinge was not strong enough, so he focused on creating a detent. A detent is a device that holds one mechanical part in relation to another so the device can be released when force is applied. If someone slam dunks a basketball and pulls on the rim, a detent would allow the rim to flex downward with minimal pressure on the backboard. Ehrat fitted some heavy-duty magnets between metal plates on the rim, but this did not work as he envisioned.
The turning point came when Ehrat decided to use a spring mechanism. Drawing upon his agricultural background, he pulled a spring from a John Deere cultivator, cutting it to fit the basketball rim. The thick, sturdy coil was able to withstand more than a hundred pounds of pressure before yielding downward and would push the rim back into place. In addition to the spring, he tested ball bearings, bolts, and corner braces before finding the right combination that would hold at least 150 pounds of pressure.
Once he had viable prototypes, Ehrat tested their durability. He sent one to Virden High School and enlisted Randy Albrecht, to test the other prototypes. Albrecht used his connections as a basketball coach at St. Louis Community College at Meramec to have prototypes installed at the schools where he worked. The rims were sent to other high schools and colleges by Ehrat. For more information on where the prototypes went, see his deposition in Series 3, Subseries 3. Ehrat estimated in his deposition that he built approximately 36-40 prototype rims.
It took six years, from July 1976 to December 1982, for Ehrat to receive the patent on his basketball goal (United States Patent No. 4,365,802, Deformation-preventing swingable mount for basketball goals). His application was rejected twice, with patent examiner Paul Shapiro noting that Frederick C. Tyner held a patent for a similar basketball goal (United States Patent No. 4,111, 420, energy-absorbing basketball goal/backboard unit).
Ehrat and his attorney, Ralph Staubly, pursued an appeal of the rejection. Staubly, a retired patent examiner had moved to Springfield, IL, in the 1970s to open a private practice. A major part of the appeal involved notarized letters from acquaintances who said that Ehrat's invention was unique and would be an asset to the sport of basketball. He also proved, through copies of canceled checks and a rough sketch of his invention, that he was working on his breakaway basketball goal in 1975 before Frederick Tyner conceived of his. In a 1984 deposition (Series 3, Subseries 1), Tyner placed the date of his invention near the last week of March or first week of April 1976, not long after he heard that the NCAA had reinstated dunking.
Ehrat won the appeal, effectively rendering the Tyner patent invalid. After Staubly fell ill and moved to Texas, and in early 1983, Ehrat found a new patent attorney,McPherson Moore of the St. Louis firm Rogers, Eilers and Howell, who became Ehrat's main legal counsel for approximately 20 years.
In February, 1983, two months after Ehrat received his patent, his attorney McPherson Moore sent certified letters to more than 60 sporting goods companies to announce the patent. The letters were sent to alert companies of possible infringement and to garner interest in licensing agreements.
During the basketball goal patent's 17-year lifespan, Ehrat obtained a dozen companies as licensees. Only Fisher-Price and Schutt Manufacturing signed without much difficulty. Ehrat worked to get the other companies licensed, in some cases filing patent infringement lawsuits or threatening to file them. Ehrat's first licensing agreement, signed in 1983, was with Basketball Products International.
Ehrat was involved in eight civil action lawsuits, five of which took place in 1984, when he had to prove for a second time that he had his idea for a breakaway goal before Tyner. Ehrat also defended his patent against other, similar patents issued to sporting goods companies in the early 1980s. Kenneth Mahoney of Toss Back, Charles Engle of Gared Company, and the Porter Equipment Co. all received patents for basketball goal devices, citing Ehrat's patent as prior art. Ehrat was involved in lawsuits with all three companies.
In 1986, Ehrat and attorney McPherson Moore were contacted by William "Toby" Dittrich, who held two patents --United States Patent No. 4,151,989, basketball practice device and United States Patent No. 4,465,277, basketball goal structure. Dittrich was having difficulty licensing his patents to companies because of the confusion over Ehrat's and Tyner's patents. Dittrich assigned his patents to Ehrat in 1987 and they signed a joint licensing agreement to split royalties and settlement money.
In addition to his basketball goal patent, Ehrat also holds two patents for agricultural inventions: United States Patent No. 4,358,054, field-sprayer tank-vehicle having means for on-site metering and mixing of soil-treating chemicals; and United States Patent No. 4,588,127, material-spreading field vehicle having means for on-site metering and mixing of soil-treating chemicals.
Arthur Ehrat died on July 9, 2015.
Related Materials:
Artifacts related to this collection were donated to the Museum's Division of Music, Sports and Entertainment, now the Division of Culture and Arts.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center in 2005 by Arthur Ehrat. An addenda of materials related to Toby Dittrich was donated by Toby Dittrich in 2014.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Search this
Extent:
3 Cubic feet (20 boxes )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Oral history
Videotapes
Betacam sp (videotape format)
Vhs (videotape format)
Date:
2000 - 2001
Summary:
Thirty-three videotaped interviews of Nobel Prize laureates, conducted in Lindau, Germany, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the United States. The interviews form the core of the Nobel Voices Video History Project and the exhibition "Nobel Voices." Documents and preserves examples of the quest for innovation and its important messages for future generations.
Scope and Contents:
The thirty-three interviews total approximately twenty-six and one half hours in length and exist in five formats: digital, BetaCam SP, 1/2" VHS, cassette audio tapes, and transcripts. All five formats document the same interview content for each interviewee. The collection contains original, master, and reference videos, audio tapes, transcripts, production footage (stock and b-roll) and compact disks, documenting thirty-three Nobel laureates. All interviews were conducted by Neil Hollander. The production footage is from a variety of non-profit and commercial sources and there are no transcripts or time logs. The production footage was used in the exhibition interactive Ask the Prizewinners and the Nobel Prize: 100 Years of Creativity and Innovation (interactive CD-ROM). This CD-ROM explores the motivation and vision of Nobel laureates and the history of Alfred Nobel and his prize. This CD-ROM is a resource for educators and others interested in interdisciplinary approaches to stimulating creativity. The Ernst Otto Fischer (Chemistry 1973) interview was not conducted in English and there is no transcript. The Hans-Uno Bengtson interview documents a Swedish physicist and there is no transcript. Five interviews include laureate spouses: Kirsten Fischer Lindahl, Isabella Karle, Margaret Kroto, Nancy Mullis, and Phyllis Osheroff. The video interviews and transcripts are unedited. A three minute edited version of the interviews appears on the web at http:///www.NOfestiBEL.com.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into six series.
Series 1: Original Videos, 2000
Series 2: Master Videos, 2000
Series 3: Reference Videos, 2000
Series 4: Audio Tapes, 2000-2001
Series 5: Transcripts, 2000
Series 6: Production Footage, undated
Biographical / Historical:
The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution and the Deutsches Museum collaborated in June 2000 to conduct video interviews with thirty-three Nobel Laureates. Interviews were conducted in Lindau, Germany, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the United States. The video documentation subsequently formed the core of the Nobel Voices Video History Project and the exhibition Nobel Voices: Celebrating 100 Years of the Nobel Prize. The interviewees were asked about their motivations, visions for the future, and opinions on the nature of creativity and innovation. In the interviews, the laureates speak about their passion for their work, their childhood inspirations, the spirit of discovery, and the personal meaning of the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Voices Video History Project documents and preserves examples of the quest for innovation and its important messages for future generations. Interviewees were: Werner Arber, Hans-Uno Bengton, Gunther Blobel, Paul Boyer, Claude Cohen-Tannouudji, Johann Deisenhofer, Kristen Lindahl Deisenhofer, Manfried Eigen, Richard Ernst, Edmond Fischer, Ernst Otto Fischer, Paul Greengard, Jerome Karle, Isabella Karle, Klaus von Klitzing, Walter Kohn, Harold Kroto, Robert B. Laughlin, David Lee, Rudolph A. Marcus, Kary B. Mullis, Nancy Mullis, Erwin Neher, Douglass D. Osheroff, Phyliss L. Osheroff, William D. Phillips, John Polanyi, John Pople, Gerardus t'Hooft, Robert C. Richardson, Jack Steinberger, Samuel C.C. Ting, Charles Townes, Martinus Veltman, and Jody Williams.
The Lemelson Center received generous support for the Nobel Voices exhibit from the Lemelson Foundation. The exhibit was developed in collaboration with the Deutsches Museum, Bonn, Germany, and the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, with the cooperation of the Meetings of Nobel Prize Winners in Lindau, Germany, annually convened by Countess Sonja Bernadotte of Wisborg, Sweden. Nobel Voices explores the motivation and vision of Nobel laureates and the history of Alfred Nobel and his prize. It features personal video interviews of laureates, candid photographic portraits, and original artifacts, including Albert Einstein's pipe and William Faulkner's tweed jacket and typewriter.
Visitors to the exhibition pass through eight sections telling the story of the Nobel Prize and those who have achieved it: The Nobel Prizes, Nobel Encounters, Inventing the Future, Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Prize, The World of the Laureates, Through Young Artists' Eyes, The Nobel Laureates in Lindau, and Images of Nobel Prize Winners from the National Portrait Gallery. For more information about the Nobel Prize and Nobel Laureates see http://nobelprize.org/ administered by the Nobel Foundation.
Provenance:
The collection was transferred from the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, May 18, 2001.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Signed release forms on file.
Video oral history interview of Van Phillips, inventor of the Flex-Foot and other innovative prosthetic feet, conducted by Katherine Ott and Maggie Dennis, February 27, 2004, and design drawings and printed materials regarding prosthetic feet by Van Phillips, Hilary D. Pouchak, and Slobodon Djordjevic.
Scope and Contents:
Approximately two hours of a video oral history interview of Van Phillips, inventor of the Flex-Foot and other innovative prosthetic feet, conducted by Katherine Ott and Maggie Dennis, February 27, 2004. In Series 2 there are design drawings and printed materials regarding prosthetic feet by Van Phillips and Hilary D. Pouchak.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into two series.
Series 1: Video Oral History, 2004
Series 2: Design Drawings and Printed Materials, 1991-2002
Biographical / Historical:
In 1976, after a waterskiing accident, Van Phillips had his left leg amputated just above the ankle. At the time he was twenty-one years old and a student at Arizona State University studying mass communications and advertising. The accident and his frustration with the prosthetic technology at the time motivated Phillips to switch his studies to prosthetics. He graduated in 1981. Happy to design a prosthetic foot with strength, flexibility, and light weight materials, Phillips began the process of bringing his ideas into reality. During this time his idea of a C-shaped foot was born. Carbon fiber with its excellent strength and flexible properties was cut into a C-shaped foot, with a sole on the bottom and a prosthetic socket above. With this design, weight applied by landing on the heel was converted into energy thereby simulating the spring action of the normal foot and allowing users to run and jump. After trying out his new design, Phillips immediately decided to quit his job, develop his design, and start a new company. Flex-Foot Inc. was formed in 1984 and demand for Phillips innovative prosthetic foot has increased ever since. While the firm was sold in 2000 to Ossur, a company based in Iceland, in 2000, Phillips still owns the patent rights to his invention and continues to contribute his ideas and expertise to research and development projects.
Provenance:
The design drawings and product literature was donated by Ossur North America, on July 30, 2004. The videocassettes were donated by the Smithsonian Institution's Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History on July 30, 2004.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions
Harry Kroto Innovative Lives Presentation and Interview
Creator:
Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Search this
Names:
Nobel Voices: Celebrating 100 Years of the Nobel Prize (Exhibition). Search this
Extent:
0.75 Cubic feet (4 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Oral history
Videotapes
Interviews
Betacam sp (videotape format)
Photographs
Date:
2001-10-01
Summary:
Approximately five hours of video footage documenting Harold Kroto, chemist and Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1996) discussing carbon structures called "bucky balls" named after architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. Kroto describes properties and mathematical principles represented by these structures and he discusses his background and winning the Nobel Prize.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains five (5) hours of original (BetaCam SP), master (BetaCam SP), reference videos (VHS) and one (1) audio cassette documenting Harold Kroto, chemist and Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1996). Kroto discusses carbon structures called "bucky balls" named after architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes and describes properties and mathematical principles represented by these structures. Kroto also discusses his background and winning the Nobel Prize. Audience participants are students from Queen Anne School (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) and Nysmith School for the Gifted (Herndon, Virginia). There are two sets of reference viewing copies; the Innovative Lives Presentation was filmed using two different camera angles (camera 1 and camera 2). The content is the same.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into three series.
Series 1, Original Videos and Audio Cassette, 2001
Series 2, Master Videos, 2001
Series 3, Reference Videos and Audio Cassette, 2001
Biographical / Historical:
Harry Kroto (1939-) was born in Wisbech, Cambridegshire, England and raised and educated in Bolton, Lancashire, England. He attended Bolton School where he studied art, geography, gymnastics, and woodwork. He later graduated from the University of Sheffield earning a BSc degree (1958-1961) and a Ph.D. (1961-1964) in chemistry. Kroto's doctorate work focused on "Spectroscopy of Free Radicals Produced by Flash Photolysis." Kroto's postdoctoral work in electronic and microwave spectroscopy was conducted at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada, and at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey studying liquid phase interactions by Raman Spectroscopy. In 1967, Kroto joined the staff at the University of Sussex (Brighton) where he became a professor in 1985 and in 1991 was made Royal Society Research Professor. At Sussex, Kroto began exploring the possible source of carbon chains in space. Based on this research along with his colleagues Robert Curl and Richard Smalley, both of Rice University, Kroto received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of "fullerenes." Named after architect Buckminster Fuller's soccer-ball shaped geodesic dome, fullerenes are formed when vaporized carbon condenses in an atmosphere of inert gas.
The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation was founded in 1995 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History through a generous gift from the Lemelson Foundation. The Center's mission is: to document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation; to encourage inventive creativity in young people; and to foster an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation play in the history of the United States. The Innovative Lives series brings together museum visitors and, especially, school aged children, and American inventors to discuss inventions and the creative process and to experiment and play with hands-on activities related to each inventor's product. This collection was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
Provenance:
This collection was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation on October 1, 2001.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Signed release forms on file.
Original and reference audiocassettes, digital images, video clips, and a 16mm film documenting biochemist, artist, and sculptor Edgar Meyer and his large scale models of the polio virus (interview).
Scope and Contents:
Collection documents Edgar Meyer's work in creating large scale models of molecules, specifically models of the polio virus.
Series 1: Original Audio Cassettes, 2005, consists of two audio recordings of Edgar Meyer's Innovative Lives Program and Gallery talk for the exhibition "Whatever Happened to Polio?" on July 7-8, 2005. The two cassettes are approximately 2 hours and 5 minutes in length.
Series 2: Reference Audio Cassettes, 2005, consists of three audio cassettes documenting Meyer's Innovative Lives Program and gallery talk for the exhibition "Whatever Happended to Polio?" on July 7-8, 2005.
Series 3: Digital Images, 2005, consist of one CD-ROM containing 24 digital images (jpeg files) and 5 video clip files documenting Meyer's Innovative Lives Presentation in the Museum's Information Age Theatre.
Series 4: Moving Image contains one 16 mm film titled "Exercising the PDP II," undated.
Digital images were taken by American History Museum staff members Paul Rosenthal, Matthew White and Hugh Talman of Smithsonian Photographic Services.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 4 series.
Series 1: Original Audio Cassettes, 2005
Series 2: Reference Audio Cassettes, 2005
Series 3: Digital Images, 2005
Series 4: Moving Image, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor who creates large-scale models of molecules.
Related Materials:
Materials at the National Museum of American History
Edgar Meyer's molecule sculpture of the polio virus is the exhibition "Whatever Happened to Polio?" The molecule sculpture was donated to the Division of Medicine and Science.
Provenance:
This collection was made for the National Museum of American History on July 7-8, 2005.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Approximately 5-1/2 hours of video footage documenting an interview with Dr. William Phillips, a physicist and Nobel Laureate (Physics, 1997). Phillips discusses his background, work at the National Institute of Standards (NIST) using laser light to cool gases to the lowest temperature ever achieved, and his memories of winning the Nobel Prize.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains approximately 5-1⁄2 hours of original (digital), master (BetaCam SP), and reference videos (VHS) documenting William Phillips, physicist and Nobel Laureate (Physics, 1997). Audience participants are students from Ormond Stone Middle School (Centreville, Virginia); Queen Anne School (Upper Marlboro, Maryland); Nysmith School (Herndon, Virginia): and Gwynn Park Middle School (Brandywine, Maryland).
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into three series.
Series 1, Original Videos, 2001
Series 2, Master Videos, 2001
Series 3, Reference Videos, 2001
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. William Phillips was born November 5, 1948 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. from Juniata College in 1970 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1976. Phillips was awarded the Chaim Weizmann Fellowship at MIT to work on collisions and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in spin-polarized hydrogen. After leaving MIT in1978, Phillips joined the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) which was renamed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). At NIST, Phillips worked on precision measurements of the proton gyromagnetic ratio and of the Absolute Ampere. Also, he pursued laser cooling experiments which led him and colleagues Steve Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997.
The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation was founded in 1995 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History through a generous gift from the Lemelson Foundation. The Center's mission is: to document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation; to encourage inventive creativity in young people; and to foster an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation play in the history of the United States. The Innovative Lives series brings together museum visitors and, especially, school aged children, and American inventors to discuss inventions and the creative process and to experiment and play with hands-on activities related to each inventor's product. This collection was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Nobel Voices Video History Project (AC0771)
Provenance:
Transferred to the Archives Center by the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, May 17, 2001.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions. Signed releases on file.
Videohistory created by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Interviews -- Massachusetts Search this
The papers of multi-media artist Elaine Sturtevant date from circa 1960-2014, with the bulk of material dating from the period of the artist's resurgence, 1990-2014. The collection measures 5.2 linear feet and 0.003 GB. The papers document Sturtevant's career and artistic process through correspondence with artists and curators, writings and illustrated notes, exhibition and catalog files, project files, and printed material. Sturtevant's voice and artistic mission emerge through the many items of correspondence, essays, and project notes in the collection. The collection also contains a few born-digital files of scans of exhibition photographs dating from the 1960s.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of multi-media artist Elaine Sturtevant date from circa 1960-2014, with the bulk of material dating from the period of the artist's resurgence, 1990-2014. The collection measures 5.2 linear feet and 0.003 GB. The papers document Sturtevant's career and artistic process through correspondence with artists and curators, writings and illustrated notes, exhibition and catalog files, project files, and printed material. Sturtevant's voice and artistic mission emerge through the many items of correspondence, essays, and project notes in the collection. The collection also contains a few born-digital files of scans of exhibition photographs dating from the 1960s.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as five series.
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1960-2011 (Box 1; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 2: Writings, 1980-2010 (Boxes 1-2; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Exhibition and Catalog Files, 1980-2012 (Boxes 2,7, 1.3 linear feet; ER01, 0.003 GB)
Series 4: Project Files, 2000-2010 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1960-2014 (Boxes 3-6, OV 8; 2.6 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Elaine Sturtevant (1924-2004) was a multi-media artist in New York and Paris known for her carefully inexact repetitions of others artists' works. She is sometimes called the "mother of appropriation art" for being among the first to question concepts such as originality, individual authorship, and plagiarism. Sturtevant had her first exhibition at the Bianchini gallery in New York in 1965, showing works resembling those of George Segal, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol. While Sturtevant mainly withdrew from the art world in the 1970s, she reemerged in the mid-1980s and began exhibiting internationally. In the last decades of her career, Sturtevant worked increasingly in video and installation.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Elaine Sturtevant conducted by Bruce Hainley and Michael Lobel in 2007.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives of American Art in 2018 by Loren Sturtevant, Elaine Sturtevant's daughter.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Collection includes nine (9) original Beta Cam SP videos documenting interviews with Paul MacCready, the father of human powered flight. MacCready invented the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross.
Biographical / Historical:
Born September 25, 1925 in New Haven, Connecticut. He began flying in his teens and received formal flight training from the Navy during World War II. After the war, MacCready earned a physics degree from Yale University and a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from California Institute of Technology.
Provenance:
Created by the Innovative Lives Program of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Oral history interviews conducted by Tumpak with Big Band figures (listed below), and a set of articles he wrote based on the interviews.
Arrangement:
1 series.
Biographical / Historical:
Author and journalist on music subjects.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center by John Tumpak in 2010.
Restrictions:
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
