Inventor Name
Radio Corporation of America
Repository
RCA Victor Camden/Frederick O. Barnum III Collection
Hagley Museum & Library
Manuscripts & Archives Department
P.O. Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-0545
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
3 linear ft.
Summary
This record group consists of documents removed from the Secretary's Contract File in the Radio Corporation of America because of supposed historical value. At some point after 1980, they became associated with the B.L. Aldridge file in Record Group II, but were not part of them. The first series of original contracts and agreements pertain to the formation of RCA between 1919 and 1932. This includes prior rights acquired from the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited , the construction of American transmission stations by the Marconi; world radio communication rights; the dissolution of the American Marconi company; disputes over the Marconi and Alexanderson alternator patents; the disputes among RCA, GE and Westinghouse; and the antitrust suit. The second series, "Contract File Analysis," consists of copies of cover sheets from the Contract File giving the contract number, the name of the parties and an abstract of the action. The series appears to have been produced in 1929-1933 at the time of the antitrust suit, when RCA became an independent company for the purpose of determining which agreements should be assigned to which of the new RCA subsidiaries and which were no longer in force.. The sheets include most of the important contracts entered into by RCA or inherited from predecessors down to early 1933. The oldest contract is dated 1887.
Finding aid:
http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/2069.xml&chunk.id=&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=default