description | The papers of John Hays Hammond (1888-1965) consist primarily of correspondence, notebooks, sketches, technical papers, legal briefs, printed material, chronologies, and annotated photographs. The collection spans the period 1908-1965, with the bulk of the material falling between 1912 and 1953.
The collection is divided into four series: Notebooks , General Case File , Photographs , and Oversize . The Notebooks series, dated 1912-1918, contains reports by Hammond and his staff on experiments with radio control inventions. The General Case File represents the bulk of the collection. The third series, Photographs , includes detailed prints and negatives of Hammond’s staff and radio equipment. Several of the technical prints have explanatory notes pointing out specific electrical components or design differences. The Oversize series contains a photograph album featuring the Hammond Research Library in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Ellison S. Purington, Hammond’s business associate and personal friend for over forty years who prepared these papers for transfer to the Library of Congress, arranged the materials in basic categories and included notes that point out significant segments of the collection. The addenda often provide background details not found in the documents.
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