2.44 Cubic feet (consisting of 4.5 boxes, 1 folder, 5 oversize folders, 2 flat boxes (partial), 1 map case folder.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Business ephemera
Business letters
Publications
Receipts
Business cards
Trade literature
Logs (records)
Sales catalogs
Print advertising
Ephemera
Catalogs
Advertising mail
Commercial catalogs
Invoices
Trade cards
Technical reports
Trade catalogs
Advertising
Manuals
Reports
Manufacturers' catalogs
Commercial correspondence
Catalogues
Printed materials
Illustrations
Bulletins
Technical manuals
Printed material
Transcripts
Letterheads
Printed ephemera
Advertisements
Advertising cards
Radio scripts
Correspondence
Advertising fliers
Business records
Date:
1893-1992
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents:
The radio category contains material primarily related to radio company products, radio broadcasts and programs, technical documentation on the use of radios, and material documenting the effect of radio on modern life. The bulk of the material covers sales catalogues and advertisements, though no complete records for single companies are present.
The radio broadcast transcripts and programs include fictional or anecdotal stories, transcripts of contests, interviews, or speeches, and notifications about future broadcasts.
Literature concerning the effect of radio on modern life includes brief radio historiographies, discussions about the need for advanced education for the radio field, and documentation of the use of radio in leisure time or in rural life. Additional publications address the uses and effects of radio during times of war. While no extensive documentation exists on any one topic, the publications may provide general histories of the radio with snapshots of specific facets of radio history.
Arrangement:
Radio is arranged in three subseries.
Business Records and Marketing Material
Genre
Subject
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Missing Title
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Radio is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
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.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Radios, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
The collection documents Edmund A. Laport, a former director of broadcast engineering for the Radio Corporation of America.
Scope and Contents:
This collection, assembled by Laport, consists of approximately three hundred photo prints of antennas and broadcast installations. Mr. Laport's original order for these photo prints has been maintained. His extensive captions for these photo prints can be found in the individual folders. Series two contains three articles by Laport on aspects of radio and an autobiographical essay.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into two series.
Series 1: Photographs, 1923-1949
Series 2: Articles, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Six months after graduation from Concord, New Hampshire High School in 1920, Edmund A. Laport obtained a commercial first grade radio operator's license from the Department of Commerce in Chicago. The autumn of 1921 found him as a radio operator at KDKF in New York City. However, due to lack of funds this station closed shortly after he arrived. In December of 1921, he moved to the New York Service Department of Westinghouse installing radio receivers.
On January 2, 1923 he joined General Electric and was made laboratory assistant to I.F. Byrnes, who was in charge of low-power transmitter design. However, Laport decided he wanted to be a forest ranger and left in July of 1923 and headed back to the woods of New Hampshire. In early 1924 LaPort began working in Montana as a forest ranger. Within a very short time, however, he realized that he was more interested in radio. Before the year was out he returned to Westinghouse where he worked largely on high power transmitters until the spring of 1933. On one assignment he traveled to Peking, China where he helped build three short-wave broadcasting stations.
The Depression proved difficult for fledgling radio companies with many going out of business shortly after opening up. Laport worked for one of these unfortunate firms before settling in at Wired Radio, Inc. in Newark, New Jersey. Here he gained invaluable experience helping to develop equipment for commercial program transmission over power distribution systems.
In May of 1936 he joined RCA in Camden, New Jersey where he headed up the formation of their first high-power transmitter operation. He stayed with RCA until he retired in 1967. In December of 1938 he moved to Montreal where he helped RCA Victor Co., Ltd. start the development and manufacture of military and professional equipment. He organized engineering and manufacturing facilities and trained personnel. He also took a role in leading the company in developing aviation navigational equipment.
In July 1944 he returned to the United States to become chief engineer of the newly formed RCA International Division. Over the next ten years he traveled widely, undertaking many important field construction projects and consulted with other governments in communications, broadcasting, aviation, and marine matters.
Edmund A. Laport was a director of broadcast engineering for the Radio Corporation of America. From 1954 until 1967 he worked with others in a corporate level engineering consulting group to coordinate work in the many RCA plants in all aspects of communications. He authored Radio Antenna Engineering which was published by McGraw-Hill in 1952.
Provenance:
Donated by Edmund A. Laport, circa 1971.
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.
H.M. Govt. Communications Centre stamped on reverse.
Local Numbers:
AC0016-0000002.tif (AC Scan No.)
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protecte by sleeves.
Collection 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:
Radio -- Transmitters and transmission Search this
Collection Citation:
Edmund A. Laport Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Radio operators receiving transmissions from SS Leviathan and SS Mauretania on 2100 m. band.
Local Numbers:
AC0055-0000047.tif (AC Scan)
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection 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.
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection 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.
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection 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.
[Technical reports on ground waves, radio transmission and reception, radio propagation measurements, and sky-wave field intensities in the high frequency band]
Author:
United States Army Signal Corps Radio Propagation Agency Search this
Science Service was established in 1920 through the efforts of the E. W. Scripps Company in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and the National Research Council (NRC). In 1919 Scripps had established the American Society for the Dissemination of Science.
Unknown to Scripps, the three major scientific organizations were trying to agree on a format and establish a popular science journal. In 1920 Scripps met with representatives
of the AAAS, NAS, and NRC in an attempt to pool resources. Out of that meeting came Science Service, a news service designed to popularize science and to disseminate scientific
knowledge.
This accession consists of Science Service files that were given to and maintained by the Division of Electricity and Modern Physics (E&MP), National Museum of American
History (NMAH), which later became part of the Division of Information Technology and Society and then Division of Work and Industry after that. The files in this collection
relate specifically to the subject of electricity. Also covered and related to the subject area of electricity are automobiles, batteries, camera, communications, electric
circuits, electric generators, lighting, electric machinery, electric power plants, electric power transmission, electrical engineering, electromagnets, electron microscope,
fuel cells, integrated circuits, lasers, phonographs, radio, radio transmission, telephones, and television. Materials include correspondence and memoranda, photographs, news
releases, and clippings. Some subjects are listed but the envelopes are missing. A select number of images were digitized and appeared on a Science Service website created
and maintained by Nance L. Briscoe, Collections Manager, and later by Harold D. Wallace, Curator, Division of Work and Industry, NMAH. The site has been taken down by NMAH
but can still be accessed through Accession 14-071: National Museum of American History, Website Records, 2008-2013, Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Microwave transmission circuits [prepared under the supervision of the] Office of Scientific Research and Development, National Defense Research Committee
