This collection is composed primarily of George Everson's papers documenting his work with Philo T. Farnsworth's television company. Also included are items showing Everson's work at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California and his personal life.
Identification:
MS SC FA
Language:
Material in English
Repository:
Arizona State University Library. Rare Books and Manuscripts P.O. Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 Phone: (480) 965-4932 E-Mail: archives@asu.edu Questions? Ask An Archivist!
Biographical Note
Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born in southwestern Utah to Lewis and Serena (Bastian) Farnsworth on August 19, 1906 in a log cabin that his grandfather, a follower of Brigham Young, had built. As a child, Farnsworth enjoyed reading science books and magazines and had converted most of the family's appliances to use electricity by the time he entered high school in Rigby, Idaho. In 1922, Farnsworth entered Brigham Young University and, in the same year, sketched out his idea for an "image dissector" vacuum tube that could revolutionize broadcasting.
When Farnsworth's father died two years later, he left school to take a public works job in Salt Lake City, Utah to support his family. He married Elma "Pem" Gardner (1908-2006) in 1926 and the couple had four children. Farnsworth did not abandon his interest in engineering and in 1926 convinced some friends, including George Everson (1885-1982), to fund his inventing efforts. In 1927, Farnsworth made the first broadcast using an all-electric television in San Francisco, California. The device was patented in 1930 and Vladimir Zworykin of RCA visited Farnsworth's laboratory in the same year. RCA later claimed that Zworykin had invented the device, and the resulting patent battle, which ended with RCA paying Farnsworth $1 million for the relevant patents, lasted for over ten years. Farnsworth's company, Farnsworth Television Inc., was sold to ITT in 1949. In addition to television, Farnsworth invented a "cold" cathode ray tube, a baby incubator, and the first electronic microscope. Philo T. Farnsworth died of pneumonia on March 11, 1971.
Scope and Content Note
This collection is composed primarily of materials documenting George Everson's work with Philo T. Farnsworth's television company and Everson's personal life. The first section of the collection houses business correspondence that Everson wrote and received in his capacity as Farnsworth Television Inc.'s secretary; clippings, articles, and photographs documenting Philo T. Farnsworth and the history of television; and a manuscript of Everson's The Story Television: The Life of Philo T. Farnsworth.
The next section of the collection houses materials documenting Everson's personal and professional life outside of his connection with Farnsworth, including the twelve years (1942-1954) that he spent working at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California. These materials include items showing E. O. Lawrence, his brother John Lawrence, and their families; an unpublished manuscript describing Everson's career at Lawrence; and information about other prominent people working at Lawrence during the time Everson was there, including the Nobel Prize winning scientist Luis Alvarez.
Also included in this collection are a 66-page Autobiography of George Everson (edited by Jay L. Faulkner), information (including annotated photographs, personal correspondence, and newspaper clippings) about the individuals mentioned in the Autobiography, and a scrapbook assembled by Mrs. Don C. Bryant Sr. during her tenure as President of the California Inventors Hall of Fame showing the early years of Farnsworth's work and television's development.
Arrangement
This collection consists of twelve boxes divided into eleven series:
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.
[Identification of item], Philo T. Farnsworth and George Everson Papers, MS SC FA, Arizona State University Library.
Provenance
Jay L. Faulkner donated these papers to Special Collections in 1988 (Accession #2003-02757, 2003-02769, 2003-02814, 2003-02948, 2003-03120, and 2004-03158).
The late Mrs. Don C. Bryant, Sr., when she was the President of the California Inventor's Hall of Fame, was responsible for getting a stamp dedicated to Philo T. Farnsworth and an historic plaque on the building in San Francisco from which he had his first television transmission. She assembled a scrapbook on Farnsworth of approximately 200 pages. This box contains photocopies of the contents of the original scrapbook.
Box
Folder
6
1
Information on Commemorative Stamp, Historic Landmark, Honorary Doctorate, Statuary Hall, National Inventors Hall of Fame (1984), and Other Honors and Awards
6
2
Information on Patents, the Patent Controversy, and Career Data
6
3
Obituary and Eulogy
6
4
Reminiscences of Farnsworth's Widow and his two Sisters
6
5
Lengthy Articles on Farnsworth and a Chapter from a Book
Everson and People Mentioned in his Autobiography (8 Photographs)
B
George Everson and Mrs. Jesse Cargar at the launching of the SS Whirlwind in Oakland,
1944 September 5 (Framed; 8" x 10")
B
Donald Cooksey [?] portrait, Director of Lawrence Radiation Lab (Framed; 8" x 7.5")
B
SS Whirlwind Launch,
1944 September 5 (Framed; 8" x 10")
B
A "pi-plus meson..." (Framed; 8" x 10")
B
"72" Hydrogen Bubble Chamber" 1st hour of operation,
1959 March 24 (Framed; 8" x 10")
B
Two Unidentified Women (14.5" x 11.5")
B
George Everson's Mother (Oval; Matted)
Deframed by Preservation Department in November 1990 due to deterioration.
B
Everson's College Diploma
Box
C
Ernest Lawrence,
1958 April 17 (12.5" x 16")
Inscribed to Everson.
C
Portrait of George Everson by Moulin of San Francisco (8" x 10"; Matted)
C
Portraits of George Everson by P. H. Hiss, Photographer (11" x 14" and 8" x 10"; Matted)
C
Portrait, Don Lippincott (Farnsworth Attorney) (8" x 10")
C
Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici, Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, Messier 51 (17" x 20"; Framed)
C
Unidentified Nebula [?] (Framed)
C
Caricature. "George Everson’s Scientific Corral." Mendocino Home of Radlab’s Pied-Piper,
1954 June 8 (Color Copy; Drawing; 27.5 cm x 42 cm)
Done as memento of Prof. Lawrence’s Party. Signatures include 5 Nobel laureates, i.e. Edward Teller. Accession 2002.06. Presented to Everson upon his retirement from Lawrence Radiation Lab.
Albert Abramson. The History of Television, 1880 to 1941. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers (Shelved Next to Collection)
Childs, Herbert. An American Genius: The Life of Ernest Orlando Lawrence. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.,
1968 (Shelved Next to Collection)
Mills, Mark M., Biehl, Arthur T., Mainhardt, Robert, eds. Modern Nuclear Technology: A Survey Industry and Business. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1960 (Shelved Next to Collection)
Morgan, Jane. Electronics in the West: The First Fifty Years. California: National Press Books,
1967 (Shelved Next to Collection)
