Guide to The Lee and Marie de Forest Papers
Processed by Catherine Mills, History San Jose Research Library.
History San Jose Research Library
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History San Jose. All rights reserved.
Title: The Lee and Marie de Forest Papers
Date: 1873-1977
Date (bulk): 1890-1961
Collection number: 2003-34.
Collectors:
de Forest, Lee, 1873-1961
Extent:
28 linear feet
Repository:
History San Jose Research Library
Abstract: Papers of electronics inventor, radio and film pioneer Lee de Forest and his fourth wife, Marie Mosquini de Forest. Collection
includes correspondence, manuscripts, sketches and diagrams, notebooks, patents, memoirs, patent notes and legal papers, scrapbooks,
speeches, poems, photographs, and articles and other printed material, and awards, spanning from de Forest's early education
at the Mount Hermon School for Boys and student days at Yale (1890s), to material collected by Marie following his death in
1961.
Physical location: History San Jose Collection Center
Languages:
The majority of the collection material is in English with the exception of French and German patents, and French, German, and Spanish journal articles.
Access
The papers are available for researchers by appointment through the Curator of Library and Archives. A small number of personal
documents contain sensitive information and redacted versions will be used for research purposes.
Publication Rights
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions
of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a
photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used
for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy
or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution
reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation
of copyright law.
Preferred Citation
The Lee and Marie de Forest Papers, 2003-34. History San Jose Research Library, San Jose, California.
Acquisition Information
The vast majority of the papers were donated by Marie de Forest in 1968 to the Perham Foundation of Los Altos Hills, California.
There appear to have been at least two other additions made through rescue efforts by individual Foundation members between
1964 and 1968. After going into storage in 1991, the papers were donated in 2003 to History San Jose as part of the Perham
Collection of Early Electronics.
Processing History
Processed by Catherine Mills, History San Jose Research Library, 2012, under a grant from the Council on Library Resources'
Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.
Related Collections
Lee de Forest and de Forest corporate materials can be found in sub-collections of the Perham Collection of Early Electronics
(2003-1). In particular, the Perham History Files (2003-33) include several early De Forest brochures and Lloyd Espenschied's
original correspondence with de Forest. The Thorn Mayes sound recordings of lectures and interviews (2003-38) also contain
detailed histories of the de Forest early wireless telegraph and radiotelephony ventures.
Associated material in other repositories includes:
- Lee De Forest Papers at the Library of Congress (1.6 feet, MS998006)
- Lee De Forest Papers at Yale University (1 foot, MS 1210v)
- One scrapbook held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History completes the History San Jose scrapbook series
Other Finding Aids
History San Jose's PastPerfect catalog, which includes many digitized images, is searchable at http://historysanjose.pastperfect-online.com
Publication Note
Original source material from these papers, including journals, correspondence, and photographs, were cited in the following
monographs.
Mike Adams,
Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television and Film, (New York: Springer, 2011).
James A. Hijiya,
Lee de Forest and the Fatherhood of Radio, (Bethlehem, Pa.: Lehigh University Press, c1992).
Tom Lewis,
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, (New York: E. Burlingame Books, 1991).
Biography
Few individuals better represent the vicissitudes of invention than Lee de Forest, an ambitious experimenter and inventor
with more than 300 patents, but whose business ventures often failed or became embroiled in litigation. Born in Council Bluffs,
Iowa, on August 26, 1873, de Forest grew up at Talladega College, where his father, Henry Swift De Forest, served as president.
After attending boarding school at Mount Hermon School for Boys, de Forest enrolled at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School
through the DeForest family scholarship, where he earned money from mechanical and gaming inventions, receiving his B.A. in
1896 and Ph.D. in Physics in 1899. Early in his career, de Forest adopted the use of a lower case "d" in "de Forest;" the
rest of his family used an upper case "D."
De Forest's doctoral thesis, titled "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires," focused on wireless propagation
of electromagnetic waves, and with Edwin Smythe, a colleague from Western Electric, he developed an electrolytic detector
for wireless telegraph communication. He spent the early 1900s working on wireless telegraph business ventures, including
the American DeForest Telegraph Company created with Abraham White in 1902, which advertised itself through a telegraph tower
at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, 1904. In 1906, however, de Forest was forced to resign from the company
over patent infringement issues with Reginald Fessenden. A detailed history of these companies can be found in Thorn Mayes'
Wireless Communication in the United States: The Early Development of American Radio Operating Companies (East Greenwich, R.I.: New England Wireless and Steam Museum, 1989).
During this time, de Forest had been experimenting with vacuum tube technology in his laboratory, and he filed a patent application
for the three-element tube (audion) in January of 1907. His focus was now on voice communication, and by early 1907 he was
able to communicate using radiotelephony across his laboratory in New York City. Between 1907 and 1911 de Forest launched
and built his radiotelephone companies; on January 13th, 1910, he broadcast a performance of several opera stars from the
New York Metropolitan Opera House. His radiotelephone company went bankrupt in 1911 while de Forest was on the West Coast
supervising Signal Corps installations in Seattle and San Francisco; he remained in Palo Alto, California, to work at the
Federal Telegraph Company, hired by Chief Engineer Cyril Elwell to head a team to concentrate on the development of a circuit
that would cause an audio tube to amplify.
It was at Federal Telegraph, through de Forest's work with C. V. Logwood and Herbert Van Etten, that the 1906 three-element
vacuum tube (triode) was recognized as a detector, amplifier and oscillator of radio waves, and de Forest's career was reinvigorated.
He then began to experiment with the possibility of recording sound on the wire that was synchronized with the taping of motion
pictures and in April 1913 returned to New York City.
De Forest went on to play a significant role in broadcast radio and sound-on-film development during the 1920s. His work on
the De Forest Phonofilm process, and the drama surrounding the development of sound-on-film systems, is the subject of Mike
Adams' biography
Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Film and Television (New York: Springer, 2011). De Forest received a Life Achievement Oscar from the Motion Pictures Academy in 1959/60 for his
pioneering in the advent of "talkies."
De Forest spent the latter half of his life in Los Angeles, married to Marie Mosquini, a silent film star. He continued working
in his laboratory on inventions including an aerial bomb, ground speed indicator for airplanes, a light amplifier, color television
picture technologies, and a means for direct heat conversion, supported in part by a yearly grant from Bell Laboratories,
and between 1950-1958 by funding from Lyndon A. Durant of the American Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1950, de Forest published his autobiography
The Father of Radio (Chicago: Wilcox & Follett, 1950) and continued to encourage publicity throughout his life. The year 1956 was established
as the golden anniversary of the Audion, instigating multiple celebrations in de Forest's honor. Despite these awards, however,
de Forest was unsuccessful in his campaign for a the Nobel Prize in Physics.
De Forest was married four times. His first marriage to Lucille Sheardon in 1906, lasted less than a year. His second wife,
Nora Stanton Blatch, was the first woman to receive a civil engineering degree from Columbia University. Married in 1907,
they were divorced in 1911, with one daughter, Harriet (b. 1909). Mary Mayo, his third wife, was an accomplished singer; they
married in 1912 and lived at de Forest's home on the Hudson River at W. 231st Street, Spuyten Duyvil, New York, called "Riverlure."
She bore him two daughters, Eleanor (b. 1919), and Marilyn (b. 1924), but their marriage had ended by the time de Forest met
and married Marie Mosquini in Los Angeles in 1930.
Lee and Marie lived at 8190 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles; Marie sold the house in 1967, several years after his death
in 1961.
References:
- Mike Adams,
Lee de Forest : King of Radio, Television, and Film, (New York: Springer, 2011).
- Lee de Forest,
Father of Radio : the Autobiography of Lee de Forest, (Chicago: Wilcox & Follett, 1950).
- Tom Lewis,
Empire of the Air : The Men Who Made Radio, (New York: E. Burlingame Books, 1991).
- Thorn Mayes,
Wireless Communication in the United States : the Early Development of American Radio Operating Companies, (East Greenwich, R.I.: New England Wireless and Steam Museum, 1989).
Scope and Content Summary
Papers of electronics inventor, radio and film pioneer Lee de Forest and his fourth wife, Marie Mosquini de Forest. Collection
includes correspondence, manuscripts, sketches and diagrams, notebooks, patents, memoirs, patent notes and legal papers, scrapbooks,
speeches, poems, photographs, and articles and other printed material, and awards, spanning from de Forest's early education
at the Mount Hermon School for Boys and student days at Yale (1890s), to material collected by Marie following his death in
1961.
De Forest's 1906 invention of the "Audion" tube (or triode), the first electronic amplifier, has been called the most important
electronics invention between the development of radio and the birth of the transistor. De Forest is credited with some 300
patents, and spent much time on patent litigation. He also played a significant role in broadcast radio and sound-on-film
development. His papers reveal much about the man and the inventions as well as the evolution of radio, motion pictures, and
American electronics.
The papers are divided into 12 series. It is worth noting that gaps in de Forest's early research have resulted from the January
1908 fire that destroyed records and notebooks housed at his laboratory in the Parker Building in New York City.
Indexing Terms
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Subjects
De Forest, Lee, 1873-1961--Archives.
Mosquini, Marie, 1899---Archives.
Mayo, Mary
de Forest, Nora Stanton Blatch
De Forest, Henry Swift
De Forest, Anne Margaret Robbins
De Forest, Charles Mills
De Forest, Mary Robbins
White, Abraham
Armstrong, Edwin H. (Edwin Howard), 1890-1954
De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company
De Forest Phonofilm Corporation
De Forest Radio Telephone & Telegraph Co.
Dominion DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd.
De Forest's Training, inc.
De Forest Dynatherm (brand)
De Forest Pioneers
De Forest Radio Company
Yale University. Sheffield Scientific School.
United Engineering Laboratories
Inventors--California.
Radio--History.
Radio broadcasting--United States--History.
Wireless telegraph--History.
Vacuum-tubes--History.
Sound motion pictures--History.
Genres and Forms of Materials
correspondence
scrapbooks
patents
administrative records
photographs
clippings (information artifacts)
ephemera
manuscripts for publication
research notes
Box 1-8
Series 1.
Correspondence
1888-1978
Physical Description: 6 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Personal and business correspondence of Lee de Forest, Marie de Forest, and United Engineering Laboratories.
Box 1-7
Subseries 1.1
Lee de Forest Correspondence
1888-1961
Physical Description: 5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Personal and business correspondence. Includes 14 folders of letters between de Forest and his family, wives and girlfriends.
Because of de Forest's work as an independent inventor, much of his business and personal correspondence overlaps.
Box 1
Subseries 1.2
Marie de Forest Correspondence
1952-1978
Physical Description: 1 folder.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Personal and business correspondence of Marie de Forest, primarily correspondence with the Perham Foundation and Foothill
Museum regarding the donation of Lee de Forest's papers to the new electronics museum.
Box 8
Subseries 1.3
United Engineering Laboratories Correspondence
1950-1958
Physical Description: 1 linear foot.
Series Scope and Content Summary
UEL was set up and financed in 1950 by Lyndon Durant of United Manufacturing Company in order to provide Lee de Forest with
a laboratory in which to conduct experiments related to direct energy conversion. It was located at 1027 N. Highland Avenue,
Los Angeles 38, California. The arrangement continued until April 1958, at which point the machine shop was shut down and
the equipment sold or donated to universities.
Box 9-18
Series 2.
Administrative and Financial Records
1900-1967
Physical Description: 4.5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Lee and Marie de Forest personal financial records, Lee de Forest Foundation business records, United Engineering Laboratories
administrative and financial records, and corporate records and ephemera from de Forest's companies.
Box 9
Subseries 2.1
Lee and Marie de Forest Financial Records
1923-1967
Physical Description: .25 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Insurance contracts, income tax records, checkbooks, receipts, and wills.
Box 10-12
Subseries 2.2
De Forest Corporate Records and Ephemera
1900-1952
Physical Description: .5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Assorted records and ephemera from De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company, Dominion De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd.,
The Radio Telephone Company/de Forest Wireless System, de Forest Radio Tel & Tel Co., De Forest Phonofilm Corporation, De
Forest Radio Co., De Forest Short-Wave Therapy (Dynatherm), De Forest's Training, Inc.
Box 13
Subseries 2.3
The Lee deForest Foundation Records
1950-1954
Physical Description: .5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
The Foundation was established in July 1950 as a tax-exempt organization under Section 101(6) of the Internal Revenue Code
by Lee de Forest, Alfred J. Schramm, H. L. Oettinger, Ulysses A. Sanabria, and Benjamin M. Becker, for the purpose of funding
research projects by United Engineering Laboratories with de Forest as Research Director. Soon thereafter, the Foundation
contracted with Lyndon A. Durant to experiment with thermal electronics, specifically the conversion of heat directly into
electricity. The Foundation was terminated in June 1954, apparently as the result of income tax obligations.
Box 14-18
Subseries 2.4
United Engineering Laboratories Business Records
1950-1959
Physical Description: 3 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Invoices, receipts, petty cash and expense reports to United Manufacturing Company, as well as personnel, banking and tax
records.
Box No. 19-26
Series 3.
Lee de Forest Research and Reference Materials
1891-1961
Physical Description: 4.5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Includes de Forest's handwritten class notebooks from Yale University, research notebooks, loose notes, sketches and diagrams,
and third-party reference material collected over the course of de Forest's career.
Box 19-22
Subseries 3.1
Lecture and research notebooks
1891-1956
Physical Description: 2 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
De Forest's handwritten sketches of Lake Quinsigamond (Worcester, Mass.), course lecture and research notebooks from Yale
University, and research notebooks.
Box 23
Subseries 3.2
Loose technical notes and diagrams
1900-1959
Physical Description: .5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Handwritten technical notes, sketches and diagrams, some undated and unidentified.
Box 24-26
Subseries 3.3
Reference material
1891-1961
Physical Description: 2.5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Third-party technical reference material, including technical journals, magazine articles, product literature, and textbooks.
Box 27-28
Series 4.
Patents and Patent Material
1871-1956
Physical Description: 2.5 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Patents filed by Lee de Forest, reference patents, patent litigation documents, related correspondence.
Box 27-28
Subseries 4.1
Lee de Forest Patents
1906-1958
Physical Description: .5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
United States and foreign patents filed by Lee de Forest.
Box 29-31
Subseries 4.2
Reference Patents
1871-1955
Physical Description: 1.5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
United States and foreign patents not filed by Lee de Forest.
Box 32
Subseries 4.3
Patent litigation notes and court records
1919-1949
Physical Description: .5 linear feet.
Series Scope and Content Summary
Notes, loose documents, and court records related to de Forest's many patent litigation proceedings.
Box 22, 33-37
Series 5.
Autobiography and Diaries
1891-1955
Physical Description: 2 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Typescripts of Lee de Forest's autobiography, "Father of Radio," published by Wilcox & Follett in 1950, and "The Journal of
de Forest," a condensed version of his 23 diaries (1891-1931) by biographer Eloise McCaskill (1955). De Forest donated his
original diaries to the Library of Congress; a microfilm copy is included in these papers.
Box 38
Series 6.
Published articles by Lee de Forest
1903-1960
Physical Description: .5 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Articles authored by de Forest, published in a variety of magazines and journals.
Box 39-40
Series 7.
Lee and Marie de Forest unpublished literature
1899-1961
Physical Description: 1 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Typed drafts of essays, speeches and addresses; technical manuscripts; includes autobiographical material by Marie Mosquini
de Forest. Includes a handwritten copy of de Forest's Yale PhD thesis, "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel
Wires," 1899.
Box 9, 45
Series 8.
Certificates and Honors
1923-1977
Physical Description: 1.5 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Awards and honors given to Lee de Forest, and programs from honorary events.
Box 41
Series 9.
Talladega College and Yale University Alumni material
1895-1960
Physical Description: .5 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Newsletters, commencement programs and periodicals. De Forest gave the 1951 commencement address at Talladega College; photographs
from his visit are included.
Box 43-46
Series 10.
Publications about Lee de Forest
1906-1961
Physical Description: 3 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
News and magazine articles, radio transcripts about Lee de Forest and his business enterprises. Includes assorted biographical
material.
Box 49-59
Series 11.
Lee and Marie de Forest Scrapbooks
1873-1969
Physical Description: 6.5 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
Scrapbooks of news clippings, photographs, letters, ephemera and assorted mementos related to de Forest's companies, travel,
and personal life. Early scrapbooks contain a significant amount of material on Yale University in the 1890s, American DeForest
Wireless Telegraph, and the wireless telegraph industry. Two scrapbooks are devoted to DeForest Phonofilm.
Box 60
Series 12.
Photographs
1873-1973
Physical Description: 1 linear feet
Series Scope and Content Summary
143 loose photographs found with the Lee and Marie de Forest papers. Note that at least 400 photographs relating to de Forest's
family and businesses, some of which may have been part of the original donation by Marie de Forest, have been cataloged separately
under the Perham Collection of Early Electronics (2003-1).