The records of the Rayovac corporation, while incomplete, cover the company’s progression through the twentieth century:from its beginnings as the French Battery and Carbon Company mostly supplying batteries for radios and flashlights; inventions of a “leak proof” battery design, and of the first wearable vacuum tube hearing aid and hearing aid batteries; and their introduction of a rechargeable battery. The records contain company histories; some administrative files; financial yearly reports most extensively from the 1930s through the 1950s; a wide range of employee newsletters, as well as fliers, memos and other documents from a women employees’ club; and documents relating to the various product lines including product development, advertising materials, and product pamphlets. The collection also includes many photographs of employees and factories, audio recordings used for training, and films and video. Many of the records include acquisitions paperwork from Rayovac’s attempts at collecting materials from past employees for their corporate archives.
The HISTORY OF RAYOVAC series contain several attempts through the years to record the company’s history, usually in time to celebrate a company milestone. The “History of Rayovac,” is a lengthy typed timeline of company activities from 1906 through 1972; whereas the “Company History and General Reference Materials” is a scrapbook of compiled reports with organizational charts, clippings, and diagrams. Also included is a booklet published to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary.
To celebrate 75 years, Rayovac commissioned Ken Ruble to interview former employees including those who spent 40-50 years with the company as well as the attorney who handled Rayovac business as outside counsel. Included are Ruble’s typed notes for these interviews. The interviews were used by Ruble to write The Rayovac Story published by the North Central Publishing Company in 1981.
Also included in the History of Rayovac series are two films: Inside Story (1941) on how a Rayovac “leak proof” battery is made; and battery production in 1951 at the Madison Plant.
The ADMINISTRATIVE FILES series is divided into four subseries: Correspondence, Directors Meeting Minutes, Legal Cases, and Yearly Reports.
There is a small amount of correspondence including letters and postcards relating to merchandising of products in the 1920s, letters from William Fisher including his relocation from Texas to Chicago in 1928, and supervisors’ letters from 1953 to 1955. Also included are “jobber” reports, advertisements, and expense accounts.
The Directors meeting minutes cover two runs – from 1907 to 1924 and from 1951 to 1957. The minutes include resolutions, inventories, organizational charts and financial statements. These minutes are also available on microfilm (Micro 917).
The documents in the Legal Cases section concern several cases about Rayovac’s “leak proof” dry cell batteries, invented by one of their engineers in 1939. Included are documents from patent infringement cases brought by Rayovac against General Dry Batteries Inc., and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. In addition, are memos concerning the cases brought against Rayovac for use of the term “leak proof” in both patent and trademark court cases.
The Yearly Reports, 1942-1947, published for employees, highlight the company’s activities during and after World War II.
The FINANCIAL RECORDS series contains end of the year reports for much of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, covering the years of the Great Depression, World War II, and the post war period. During this time Rayovac experience significant growth with its invention of a “leak proof” battery as well as a large government contract to supply batteries to troops during WWII. There is also an audit report from 1910, a balance sheet from 1927, a few expense reports from 1927 and 1929, and a defective batteries credit form book from 1926.
The EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTERS series contains various publications produced for the employees and subsidiaries of Rayovac (and predecessor French Battery and Carbon Company) from 1919 to 1999. The longest and most complete runs are Ray-O-Lite News (1919-1926), News from Home (1925-1928) and Sparks (1945-1972). The newsletters cover news from the company, employee activities, and even recipes and contests. Also included are a few non-Rayovac newsletters as well as a few from Rayovac’s onetime parent company ESB Inc.
The GIRLS ACTIVITY CLUB series, 1949-1973, contains the records of a women’s employee association in Madison. The documents include information on various outings, luncheons and dinners, flowers given to each female employee on her birthday, and the association budget.
The PRODUCTS series is further divided into three subseries: Products Development, Advertising Materials, and Product Pamphlets.
The Products Development subseries, mainly from the 1960s with a few documents from the 1970s and 1980s, are mostly drawings of hearing aid batteries and their dispensers from inception to final design.
The Advertising Materials cover advertising for the company from 1916 through 2004: from full page ads in magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, newsletters to businesses selling their products, a sales pitch circa 1929, The Ray-O-Vac Twins, and ad campaigns set around television shows and movies, as well as sports celebrities.
The Ray-O-Vac Twins, Billy Sheehan and Russ Wildey (not in fact twins), were sponsored by Rayovac and performed on radio and vaudeville throughout the United States from around 1925 to 1928. The collection includes photographs and sheet music featuring pictures of the “twins.”
Celebrity sponsors include golfers Andy North and Arnold Palmer, football player Terry Bradshaw, comedian George Burns, and basketball star Michael Jordan. There were also advertising and product tie-ins with Sesame Street, the movies Gremlins and Space Jam, and the Special Olympics.
The Advertising Materials also include a comic book from 1952 Captain Ray-O-Vac’s Adventure and Game Book, commercial storyboards and mock-ups, and videos with examples of television commercials.
The Product Pamphlets include operating manuals and information packets on batteries and radios from the 1920s and the 1980s or 1990s.
The PHOTOGRAPHS series, 1908-1990s, includes photographs, and some slides and negatives. Early photographs depict employees working in various parts of the factory including the lab, assembly and shipping. They also depict employees at company social events such as a panorama taken of employees at the company picnic in 1919 and a Rayovac day at a Milwaukee Braves game. Photographs also include various factories in Wisconsin including Madison, Appleton, Fond du Lac, and the Signal Battery Company in Milwaukee. Many of the early photographs were taken by Photoart House of Madison, Wisconsin.
In the collection there are also many photographs taken during World War II, during which Rayovac had many government contracts. One group of images depict the factories on the home front, many depicted white and black women working in the factories. Another group of images include official photographs taken by the United States Army depicting radios, flashlights and other equipment being used. One of these photographs show two Japanese-American men serving in Italy, using a flashlight to fix another piece of equipment.
The AUDIO RECORDINGS series, circa 1950s and 1986, contains mostly employee orientation and training materials. A set of three training and sales discs recorded in the 1950s have periodic “beeps” suggesting the existence of slide shows, which are not found in the collection. There is also an employee orientation recording from 1986 and the audio for film on battery production at the Madison Plant from 1951.
The UNPROCESSED MATERIALS include advertisement scrapbooks, brochures, sale literature, several company histories, annual reports, and conference and sales reports. Many of these materials complement and/or duplicate materials found in the rest of the collection.
