Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78019109
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The records of the Du Mont Laboratories were given to the Library of Congress by Allen B. Du Mont in 1965.
The Du Mont Laboratories Records were processed in 1967. The finding aid was revised in 2012.
Related collections in the Manuscript Division include the papers of Thomas T. Goldsmith .
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Allen B. Du Mont in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The records of the Du Mont Laboratories are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Du Mont Laboratories Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The records of the Du Mont Laboratories span years 1930-1960, with the bulk of the material dated between 1945 and 1960. The collection consists of correspondence, administrative files, financial records, sales and advertising material, files relating to television and government hearings, and miscellaneous records focusing on the development and commercial use of the television cathode ray tube. Included throughout are personal papers of the Du Mont firm’s founder, Allen B. Du Mont. The collection is organized into nine series: Administrative Files, General Correspondence, Interoffice Correspondence, Financial Records, Sales and Advertising File, Production and Engineering File, Television File, Government Hearings, and Miscellany.
Early records of the laboratories reflect Allen Du Mont's efforts to develop a commercially practical cathode ray tube. Photographs, schematics, and other technical records in the Production and Engineering series and Television File document his development of the cathode ray tube from a laboratory curiosity into the practical and indispensable "eye" of television, radar, and oscillographs. Other material in these files reflects the planning and organization by Du Mont and his laboratories to apply the technology used in developing the cathode ray tube to such fields as scientific and industrial measurement and to the transmission and reception of television.
The laboratory’s corporate history is documented throughout the collection, but largest in breadth, scope, and significance are the Production and Engineering File, Television File, and Government Hearings file. Contained in these series are materials documenting the commercial application of cathode ray tubes and the growth of Du Mont's television manufacturing and broadcasting divisions. These larger series also relate to television transmission, reception, and frequency allocation, Federal Communications Commission, color television, educational television, stations, networks, programs, ratings, and profits and losses. In addition, in the Television File are materials pertaining to the 1955 division of Du Mont's television receiver manufacturing business and the merger of Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories with the Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation in 1960.
Prominent correspondents include Keeton Arnett, Leonard Frederick Cramer, Thomas T. Goldsmith, Austin C. Lescarboura, Mortimer W. Loewi, Ernest A. Marx, Jack Poppele, William Allerton Roberts, Irving Sarlin, Albert Steadman, Herbert E. Taylor Jr., Paul Ware, Elmer Wheeler, and C. J. Witting.
This collection is arranged in nine series:
Awards, blueprints, charts, correspondence, industrial relations records, memoranda, minutes, newsletters, newspaper clippings, personnel records, photographs, printed matter, reports, surveys, telegrams, union materials, and miscellaneous administrative records.
Arranged by subject and therein chronologically.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of writer and therein chronologically.
Letters and memoranda.
Arranged alphabetically by name of writer and therein chronologically.
Audits, balance sheets, budgets, correspondence, cost statements, financial reports, loan papers, price lists, product sheets, profit and loss statements, stock registration lists, tax records, telegrams, and miscellaneous financial records.
Arranged chronologically.
Advertisements, budgets, catalogs, conference materials, correspondence, lists, memoranda, newsletters, photographs, price lists, printed matter, proposals, reports, surveys, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged chronologically.
Articles, awards, blueprints, charts, contracts, correspondence, diagrams, inventory lists, mechanical drawings, memoranda, notes, orders, patents, photographs, printed matter, product information sheets, proposals, reports, schedules, schematics, and specification sheets.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and therein chronologically.
Articles, block diagrams, blueprints, briefs, brochures, catalogs, contracts, correspondence, exhibits, legal papers, licenses, maps, memoranda, minutes, newspaper clippings, organization charts, pamphlets, photographs, printed matter, program ratings, reports, schedules, schematics, statements, surveys, testimony, subject and miscellaneous materials.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and therein chronologically.
Correspondence, testimony, and hearings material.
Arranged according to the hearing’s sponsor, mainly the Federal Communications Commission and the House of Representatives and Senate.
Addresses, articles, biographical material, company publications, magazines, news releases, photographs, printed matter, speeches, writings, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged by type of material.