The Sarnoff Collection is named in honor of David Sarnoff, chairman of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), founder of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and internationally renowned pioneer in radio and television.
David Sarnoff (1891-1971) was not an inventor, an engineer, or a scientist. Instead, as a corporate manager and executive he championed the development of broadcast communications. He advocated, supported, financed, and oversaw the development of radio in the 1910s and 1920s, and then television from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Under Sarnoff’s leadership, RCA scientists and engineers also made important contributions to the electronic revolution of the 20th century. Along with Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the RCA Labs in Princeton were responsible for inventing or innovating nearly every device that enabled the birth of Silicon Valley, from video displays and CCD cameras to electron microscopy and the integrated circuit. David Sarnoff and RCA were key figures in the emergence of both the modern electronics industry and the information age.
The Sarnoff Collection is named in honor of David Sarnoff, chairman of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), founder of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and internationally renowned pioneer in radio and television. It comprises over 6,000 artifacts that document major developments in communication and electronics in the 20th century. The mission of the Sarnoff Collection is to inform and inspire students of all ages and the public at large about technologies and innovations that have transformed the world.
The Sarnoff Collection at TCNJ includes artifacts related to David Sarnoff's life; RCA, NBC, Victor Talking Machine Company, and Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America; the history of radio, television, broadcasting, audio and video recording and reproduction, electron microscopy, radar, vacuum tubes, transistors, solid-state physics, semiconductors, lasers, liquid-crystal displays, integrated circuits, microprocessors, computers, communications satellites, and other technologies RCA played an important role in inventing and developing; and some of the many people, beside Sarnoff, who made these technologies work.
