After three years of processing, preserving, and cataloging, Hagley Library has opened the David Sarnoff Library collection to the public.
The collection includes thousands of linear feet of documents, reports, photographs, films and publications detailing the rise and fall of RCA and its leader Sarnoff.
Project archivists Daniel Michelson and Kenneth Cleary worked with interns from the University of Delaware and library staff, who made individual collections available to researchers as their work progressed.
“Hagley is proud of its work to preserve this collection documenting an iconic and innovative American business and the man who led that business for multiple decades,” said Erik Rau, director of library services.
“The collection includes materials donated by more than one hundred individuals and companies resulting in tens of thousands of individually cataloged reports and publications. We invite the public to explore this incredible collection on our website and at the library.”
David Sarnoff ran RCA for nearly 40 years after developing his skills as a teenager in the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America at the dawn of the radio age. When RCA was formed in 1919, Sarnoff steadily raised his visibility as a shrewd negotiator and strategist, leveraging these talents to become president of the company in 1930. Over the next four decades, Sarnoff led RCA, , introducing FM radio, color television, and a host of technologies.
In the early 1960s, Sarnoff was inspired by the Roosevelt and Truman Presidential Libraries to open a library in the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, N.J., to house his private papers and focus on his contributions to the communications and electronics industries. The David Sarnoff Collection opened in late September 1967. The collection developed further with the acquisition of papers of former RCA executives, scientists, and engineers. Hagley obtained the Sarnoff collection records shortly thereafter.
The collections are open to the public Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on the second Saturday of every month from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Researchers are encouraged to contact reference staff ahead of arrival so they can be sure material is available upon arrival.
Digital materials are available online anytime at digital.hagley.org.
