Fonds consists of the following series of textual records: Administrative documents, 1902-1970; Financial documents, 1903-1970; Operating divisions, 1902-1972; Subject files, including manufacturing licences, supply contracts, sales agreements, legal affairs and employee relations, 1922-1973; Subsidiary companies, 1920-1976; companies include: Kaar Electronics Corporation, Hunt Capacitors Ltd.; Industries de Radiocommunication S.A., and Canadian Radio Patents Limited.
The fonds contains photographs relating to the history and work of the Marconi Company and various aspects of radio and television broadcasting throughout Canada.
Also included is a film strip entitled Marconi the greatest name in radio, which includes pictures of Marconi's company, its evolution, technical progress, and most prominent partners and associates, [1950-1959].
Fonds consists of 47 architectural drawings and 11 maps relating to Canadian Marconi Company factory buildings; 14 architectural drawings and 1 map relating to Quebec transmitter stations and residences for the Canadian Marconi Company; and 47 technical drawings, 5 v. and 2 leaves relating to plans for British military field telephone sets and buzzers, prepared by the Chief Inspector for Engineering and Signals Stores, Royal Engineers.
Canadian Marconi Company : The Canadian Marconi Company was incorporated in 1903 as the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada. This enterprise grew out of Guglielmo Marconi's successful sending of a message across the Atlantic in 1901. The new company was designed to take advantage of the Marconi Company's patent monopoly rights it had acquired from the Canadian government. A transatlantic wireless station was erected on Cape Breton Island. Soon afterwards the company began to build coast stations to communicate with ships at sea.
During World War I, Marconi began to manufacture electrical and radio equipment in its Montreal factory. After the war, its interest extended to commercial broadcasting with the establishment of CFCF Montreal, one of the first public radio stations in the world. The name was changed in 1925 to Canadian Marconi Company (Limited). By the 1930s CMC was firmly established in three main areas: coast and beam stations, radio manufacturing and broadcasting. During World War II, the company underwent enormous expansion in order to build military communication equipment. This military work continued in the post war period.
As older divisions and products were phased out, for example, CMC's beam service was expropriated by the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications corporation in 1950 and 1951, and the radio and television manufacturing division was closed down in 1966 due to increased foreign competition, new fields of endeavour were found and defence work remained a big item.
