Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Note ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 5 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 6 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Victor Talking Machine Company. Executive Committee minutes ........................................................... 6 Victor Talking Machine Company. Managing Committee minutes (Managers Committee after 1927 January 26) .................................................................................................................................................. 6 RCA Victor Company, Inc. Management Committee ................................................................................ 7 RCA Victor Company, Inc. Secretary's files .............................................................................................. 7 - Page 2 - Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 Summary Information Repository: Manuscripts and Archives Creator: Radio Corporation of America. RCA Victor Division Creator: Victor Talking Machine Company Title: Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records ID: 2658 Date [inclusive]: 1912-1956 Physical Description: 5 Linear Feet Language of the English . Material: Abstract: For over fifty years the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. This collection contains the records from the Secretary's Office of the Victor Talking Machine Company and its successors RCA Victor Company, Inc., and Radio Corporation of America's RCA Victor Division. They consist of minutes of the Executive and Management Committees, an internal annual report and two contract files for supplying sound equipment to movie studios. ^ Return to Table of Contents Historical Note For over fifty years the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was one of the country's leading manufacturers and vendors of radios, phonographs, televisions, and a wide array of consumer and military electronics products. The company can trace its beginnings back to the Victor Talking Machine Company which was incorporated in New Jersey of October 3, 1901, by Eldridge Reeves Johnson (1867-1945). Johnson was a machinist who had been a subcontractor for Emile Berliner's (1851-1929) Berliner Gramophone Company. It quickly became both the leading U.S. manufacturer of phonographs, the famous "Victrola" introduced in 1906, and the recorder and manufacturer of phonograph records by many of the leading musical artists of the day. However, during the 1920s, radio eclipsed the phonograph as a means of bringing popular entertainment into the home, and on March 15, 1929, the Radio Corporation of America bought control - Page 3- Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 of the Victor Talking Machine Company. The Victor plants in Camden, New Jersey, and Oakland, California, were reorganized as the RCA Victor Company, Inc. at the end of 1929. The company became the RCA Victor Divison of the RCA Manufacturing Company, Inc., in 1934 and of the Radio Corporation of America in 1942. Activities at the Camden Plant, later successively operated by the General Electric Company (which bought RCA in 1986) and the Martin Marietta Corporation, ended in 1993. ^ Return to Table of Contents Scope and Content The records consist of sixteen volumes from the Secretary's office in the Camden administration building. They were contained in a safe which was acquired as scrap by Harold S. Riess in the early 1990s and were given to Hagley by his daughter in 2016 and 2019. The first twelve volumes consist of the minutes of the Executive Committee (1912-1920, 1927-1929) and the minutes of the Managing/Managers/Management Committee (1924-1931). They give a top level view of operations at the Camden facility down to RCA Victor's reorganization and abolition of the Management Committee on February 18, 1931. They cover the entire gamut of activities, including financial statements, levels of output, plant construction, approvals of Victrola designs and prices, production levels, purchases of materials, real estate, patents and patent suits, trademarks and advertising. Of particular note are the approvals of recording contracts with various artists, many still famous, including the length of the contract and payments. A report of the President to the Board of Directors from October 1932 covers the company's responses to the worst years of the Depression. The next two volumes contain production contracts from 1945 to 1946 for providing sound equipment to two motion picture studios, Republic Productions, Inc., and Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. In addition to the basic contract terms, they contain capsule histories of companies in the Victor-RCA family and of their experience in the development of sound recording. Lastly, a small volume contains historical corporate data on RCA's subsidiary companies up to about 1940. Included are incorporation dates, capitol stock issued, names of shareholders and officers, and other basic corporate data. Additionally, there is a short chronological history of the formation of the Victor Talking Machine Company through the merger of the RCA Manufacturing Company, Inc. into RCA. ^ Return to Table of Contents - Page 4- Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 Administrative Information Publication Statement Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Access Restrictions No restrictions on access. Use Restrictions Copyright restrictions may apply. Existence and Location of Copies View selected items online in the Hagley Digital Archives. ^ Return to Table of Contents Related Materials Related Material RCA Victor Camden/Frederick O. Barnum III Archive Collection and B. L. Aldridge's Files (Accession 2069), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library. Sarnoff Library Collection (Accession 2464), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library. ^ Return to Table of Contents - Page 5- Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 Controlled Access Headings • Electronic industries • Phonograph industry • Radio -- Equipment and supplies. • Sound -- Recording and reproducing. • Minutes • Cinematography -- Equipment and supplies Collection Inventory Victor Talking Machine Company. Executive Committee minutes Scope and Contents The first twelve volumes consist of the minutes of the Executive Committee (1912-1920, 1927-1929) and the minutes of the Managing/Managers/Management Committee (1924-1931). They give a top level view of operations at the Camden facility down to RCA Victor's reorganization and abolition of the Management Committee on February 18, 1931. They cover the entire gamut of activities, including financial statements, levels of output, plant construction, approvals of Victrola designs and prices, production levels, purchases of materials, real estate, patents and patent suits, trademarks and advertising. Of particular note are the approvals of recording contracts with various artists, many still famous, including the length of the contract and payments. Title/Description Instances Volume 2, 1912 January 2-1912 December 23 box 1 Volume 3, 1913 January 2- 1913 December 31 box 1 Volume 4, 1914 January 7-1914 December 23 box 2 Volume 5, 1915 January 6-1916 December 27 box 3 Volume 6, 1917 January 3-1920 January 21 box 7 1927 March 11-1929 April 12 box 7 ^ Return to Table of Contents Victor Talking Machine Company. Managing Committee minutes (Managers Committee after 1927 January 26) Scope and Contents The first twelve volumes consist of the minutes of the Executive Committee (1912-1920, 1927-1929) and the minutes of the Managing/Managers/Management Committee (1924-1931). They give a top level view of operations at the Camden facility down to RCA Victor's reorganization and abolition of the Management Committee on - Page 6- Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor Division secretary's records 2658 February 18, 1931. They cover the entire gamut of