Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
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.
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.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Radios, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections.
For this subject, minimal processing included arrangement to the folder level, based on prior processing and preservation action, with retention of the pre-existing arrangement when possible, if applicable. Otherwise, an order was imposed by the Processing Archivist. Some materials were consolidated to eliminate excess bulk but items within folders were not arranged further. The guide may or may not include a more refined list of folder contents. Nonarchival housing was replaced for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Minimal level processing and machine-readable finding aid completed by Max Howell, 2016 December.
Forms part of the
Radio is arranged in three subseries.
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.
Comprised of general business documentation and advertising such as receipts, invoices, clippings of ads, circulars, price lists, with a small amount of correspondence, typically transactional in nature.
Arranged into folders alphabetically by company or proprietor name. Material within the folders are not ordered. Records and marketing material for proprietorships may be filed under either the first or last name of the individual, researchers should look in all applicable alphabetical folders.
Includes business and marketing material from General Electric and Motorola.
Contains requests for the publication
Show advertisement for
Contains marketing material and a piece of ephemera from the Radio Corporation of America (RCA).
Advertising poster.
Contains 8 items and 6 empty mailing envelopes.
One catalogue per company unless otherwise noted.
Allied Radio (1957), American Radio and Research Corporation (1921), Atwater Kent Radio (3 catalogues. 1925-1934).
The Brooklyn Wireless and Electrical Novelty Company (1910), Calrad (undated), The Chicago Talking Machine Company (1893), Crosley Radio (undated).
Fada Radio (undated), Freed-Eisemann Radio (2 catalogues, 1924-1925), General Electric (2 catalogues, 1945), General Radio Company (3 catalogues, 1923-1936).
Harvey Radio Corporation Incorporated (1965), Heath Company (2 catalogues, 1957-1962), Hudson High Fidelity (3 catalogues, 1957-1958), Kolster Radio Corporation (2 catalogues, 1928 plus 2 pamphlets listing patents, trade marks, and copyrights).
Lafayette Radio Electronics (8 catalogues, 1956-1967), Leonard Radio Incorporated (1959).
Manhattan Electrical Supply Company (2 catalogues, 1913, undated), Matsushita Electic Corporation of America (1967), Midwest Radio Corporation (3 catalogues, 1937-1938), Miller Quality Products (undated).
National Radio Institute (1939), Nelson Electric Company (undated), Norris Alister-Ball Company (1925), Novelty Electric Company (1924), Ohio Rubber and Text Company (undated).
Radio Corporation of America (5 catalogues, 1939-1969), Radio Specialty Company (1924), Radio WEB (1928). Contains German language material.
Siemens and Halske AG (1930). Contains German language material.
Walker-Jimieson Incorporated (1945).
Contains business advertisements and newsclippings. Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is heavily represented. Includes Volume 1, Number 3 of the South Pole Radio News clipping, displaying photographs and educational captions about one of the Admiral Richard E. Byrd expeditions to Antarctica.
Excerpt, column, p. 27-30.
Excerpt.
2 issues: 1924 December, 1925 January.
Volume 26, Number 30.
Contains material describing radio functions, installation processes, and common radio terms.
Contains construction diagrams for gammatrons.
Topics include brief overviews of radio history, proposals for mass educational programming through broadcasts, the effect of radio on rural life, and commentary on proposed legislation impacting radio broadcasting.
Pre-1940 Worlds Fair publication.
Contains information about how radio was utilized to share news during World War II, and transcribed excerpts of notable broadcasts from the era.