Scope and Content Note
The papers of Thomas Toliver Goldsmith (1910- ) span the years 1914-1991, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1956-1966. The collection focuses on the contributions of Goldsmith in physics, electronics, and other scientific disciplines relating to television. From 1936 until 1960, Goldsmith served as director of research and development at Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories. In this capacity, he supervised and carried on developments in the fields of cathode-ray tubes, television systems, broadcasting apparatus, color television, cathode-ray oscillographs and measuring equipment, medical electronics, industrial and reconnaissance television, and navigational equipment. Goldsmith was an active participant in formulating standards for both black and white and color television with the Federal Communications Commission. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Du Mont television broadcasting facilities, including the first television station in Washington, D.C., Channel 5. The call letters of this station, WTTG represent Goldsmith's initials.
In June 1960, Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories was acquired by Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation. In this transition, the former research and development division of Du Mont Laboratories became the Du Mont Military Electronics Department within the restructured Fairchild Corporation, with Goldsmith as director of the new department. From 1966 to 1975, Goldsmith was professor of physics at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
Included in the papers are correspondence, annual reports, minutes, organization charts, patents, bids and proposals, contracts, research notes, schematics, catalogs, technical manuals, project files, and miscellaneous material pertaining to Goldsmith's career and the development and application of cathode-ray tubes, oscilloscopes, and television. The papers are organized in five series: Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation, Metromedia, Miscellany, and Oversize.
The first two series consist largely of the same types of materials. Both are divided into five sections bearing the same titles except that the research and development file in the Du Mont Laboratories series correlates to the Du Mont Military Electronics Department file in the Fairchild Corporation series. The administrative files consist of annual reports, minutes of the boards of directors, organization charts, and information on personnel matters and labor union activities. The financial records contain balance sheets and income statements, prospectuses, registration statements, and minutes of stockholder meetings. Among the miscellany are company publications, press releases, printed matter, and material from associated companies, i.e., subsidiaries of Du Mont Laboratories and Fairchild Corporation as well as companies with which they maintained joint ventures. The sales and advertising files contain advertisements, catalogs, product and sales information, and a large number of technical manuals for the maintenance operation, and service of electronic equipment manufactured by the two companies.
The research and development file in the Du Mont Laboratories series and the Du Mont Military Electronics Department section in the Fairchild Corporation series have four subsections in common. General correspondence is arranged in two parts, alphabetical and chronological, and primarily represents the exchange of information among customers, suppliers, and various divisions within the corporation. The miscellany subsections contain appointment books, calendar notebooks, and material on various scientific conferences. The patent files consist of copies of patents issued to Du Mont Laboratories and Fairchild Corporation and their competitors, correspondence, and material concerning license agreements and litigation. The production files contain bids and proposals, contract information, management proposals, research notes, reports and studies, schematics, and technical proposals and reports. One of the Du Mont company's major inventions, the electronicam, is documented in the research and development file. This series also contains a television broadcasting file with information on the Du Mont Broadcasting Network, Du Mont Television Network, television stations owned by Du Mont, the Federal Communications Commission, and the National Television System Committee to which Goldsmith made significant contributions.
Du Mont Laboratories was the first successful developer and manufacturer of television receivers. In order to provide programming for this new form of entertainment, Du Mont created the Du Mont Television Network. During the 1950s this pioneering broadcaster made several major contributions to the television programming format that are still in use in the 1990s. It later became Du Mont Broadcasting Corporation, which was in turn spun off as an independent corporation whose name, through several variations, ultimately became Metromedia. In the late 1980s, Metromedia further evolved into the Fox Network. The Metromedia series consists of materials received by Goldsmith during his tenure as a member of the firm's board of directors from 1955 to 1986. Included are annual reports, minutes, merger proposals, balance sheets and income statements, prospectuses, registration statements, minutes of stockholder meetings, newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, printed matter, and materials of associated companies.
The Miscellany series contains material documenting aspects of Goldsmith's personal life and professional activity outside the corporate sector. Individuals of note in the biographical file include Frederick Bedell, Goldsmith's advisor for his doctoral degree; Allen B. Du Mont, Goldsmith's longtime friend and employer; Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, pioneer in television research; and Goldsmith himself. During the 1970s and 1980s Goldsmith corresponded with Robert C. Burt, a wealthy California inventor, concerning experiments in automotive technology and fuel economy and Burt's primary invention, the air-drive car. Also in this series are materials on the Du Mont Foundation, on whose board of directors Goldsmith served, as well as records documenting Goldsmith's tenure as professor of physics at Furman University.
Photographs in the Miscellany series include numerous depictions of electronic equipments, both close-up and in demonstration, advertising stills, factory locations, field sites, and several groups chronicling various aspects of Du Mont history. There are also single and group shots of both Goldsmith and Allen B. Du Mont. Production shots of the Du Mont Television Network are of particular interest, especially those of the early television series, The Honeymooners.
The writings section of the Miscellany series is composed of two parts, one consisting of offprints of articles written by Goldsmith during the 1930s and 1940s in the field of television research, a reprint of his doctoral thesis at Cornell University, and an unpublished draft entitled “The History of Television from Smoke Signals to Satellite Transmission,” co-authored with Jacob H. Ruiter during the late 1980s. Writings by others include offprints of articles dealing with aspects of physics, electronics, and other scientific disciplines relating to television research, as well as several general histories of television. Included are works by Frederick Bedell, Allen B. Du Mont, and Jacob H. Ruiter, and a dissertation by Gary Hess entitled “An Historical Study of the Du Mont Television Network.” Writings by others may also include background material used by Goldsmith in his own research.
Oversize material consists of printed matter and a map.