Lou Dorfsman CBS Archive at RISD

Photo credit: CBS Corporation 1955 trade publicity photo, Lou Dorfsman surrounded by his design work.

The Lou Dorfsman CBS Archive at RISD, gift of Mark Waniga 2023, contains just over 100 items of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) corporate ephemera (examples of print advertising, education materials, promotions, etc.) and related objects, late 1940s-1980s. Graphic content designed by William Golden (1911-1959), CBS radio promotion department 1937-1941 and 1945-1959, designer of the iconic CBS eye logo in 1951, and Louis (Lou) Dorfsman (1918-2008), 1939 alumnus of the School of Art at The Cooper Union.

Lou Dorfsman joined CBS in 1946 after serving in the US Army 1943-46, was named Art Director of CBS Radio in 1951 (five short years after joining CBS), and named Creative Director of the CBS Television Network in 1959 after William Golden's sudden passing. In 1964, Dorfsman was appointed Director of Design for the entire Columbia Broadcasting System, and in 1968, became Vice President and Creative Director of the CBS Broadcast group.

Explore more about the life and design legacy of Lou Dorfsman at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Cary Graphic Arts Collection Lou Dorfsman archive, and The Cooper Union in memoriam article posted after his passing in 2008 at the age of 90.

See below for a selection of items from the collection. For more information, email vmrc@risd.edu.

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Cronkite: The Way It Was | The Sixties, A Scrapbook For Ear. CBS Stereo Cassette

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS News Television Division Education Department Teaching Supplement 1968. Informational illustrated catalog and two shrink wrapped audio cassette tapes © 1983 CBS Inc. featuring Walter Cronkite.
CBS 1980 Presidential Workbook for Concerned Citizens

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS Television News Division Election Department 1980 Promotion Literature. Informational 1980 presidential election workbook designed to promote CBS coverage of the 1980 election; also claims "If you make the effort to fill out the Workbook, on election day you will be much better equipped to vote intelligently and, as a bonus, you will have an excellent scrapbook of the 1980 Presidential election".
10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/69 (Man on the Moon)

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS News Television Division Commemorative Promotion Literature. The historic conquest of the moon as reported to the American people by CBS News over the CBS Television Network.
The Educated Eye II, The Dalton School, Children and God LP Records

Lou Dorfsman, CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions, and Tony Schwartz

CBS Television Division Education Department Teaching Supplement.

The Educated Eye II and Children and God movable record cover, [early 1970s?] ...record cover bearing the title The Educated Eye II [...] containing Tony Schwartz's vinyl record, Children and God. The cover, illustrated with black-and-white photographs taken by Ken Heyman at the Dalton School in New York City, consists of flaps that can be unfolded and reassembled into a three- dimensional "house" or "school" building Illustrated instructions for assembling the building are provided on the inside of the front cover flap, along with notes about Heyman's photographs and Schwartz's recording by Dalton headmaster Donald Barr. – Description from The Library of Congress Tony Schwartz Collection Finding Aid .

Waniga gift includes two copies of Schwartz's Children and God LP record, one intact, one with significant chipping on edge. Includes buildable house, two records, and liner notes booklet that unfolds into a poster of a child painting on the floor. Liner notes read:

"Every minute of a child's life is in itself an act of creation. A child's great work of art is the adult he becomes – himself at thirty – and he prepares for his masterpiece by making many apprentice selves and journeyman selves. That preparation is going on busily in every corner of any school. This album is our attempt to convey some glimpses of that preparation at the Dalton School.

The pictures are by Ken Heyman. An anthropologist of the camera as well as a poet of the camera, he has photographed in every part of the world those fleeting, profound stances and grimaces which reveal the ways in which children and adults think of themselves, and think of the human world around them. The little eager selves, each of them a button-nosed cosmos, which he has photographed at Dalton make up the portrait of a school – the portrait of more than one school: many are the portrait of what a school tries to do.

The record, called "Children and God," sets Dalton in the context of New York City. Tony Schwartz, the extraordinary pictorialist-in-sound who produced it, writes:" 'Children and God' was recorded during a three-and-a-half-month period in all sections of New York City. The children are speaking at home and in their schools, both private and public ... children of all faiths and no faith. Children of the Dalton School are represented along with children of many other schools. Some parents may feel that their children should not hear the differing thoughts, while other parents feel 'Children and God' is a wonderful way to open a discussion of religion and show how each child may have his own ideas."

Donald Barr, Headmaster
CBS Corporate “Black Rock” Office Architectural Detail Wall Clock

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS corporate wall clock, type face designed by Lou Dorfsman, manufactured in Switzerland. From the landmark CBS New York headquarters, the building now known as Black Rock.
CBS Corporate Desktop Items

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS branded desk items from the news room including CBS Corporate Office architectural detail stapler, paper telephone message and notepads, wood #2 pencils, CBS television news pen with iconic eye logo, company telephone directory 1985, CBS News Division URGENT shipping film & tape bag.
CBS Radio 1955 Summertime Promotion Kit

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS Radio Entertainment Division Promotion Literature. 40 and 100 word radio announcements promoting summertime radio listening. Disc jockey announcements, print ad examples, station breaks, "women's program" announcements directed at housewives, homemakers, stay at home mothers, "exploitation suggestions" listing ideas re. where and how to promote radio advertising, and summertime contest announcements inviting listeners to answer "Radio's fun in the summertime because..." in fifty words or less to win a CBS-Columbia portable radio prize. Promotion of tag line "Radio's fun, everywhere under the sun!".
“America’s Greatest Traveling Show” CBS Radio Seasonal Promotion "Suitcase"

Lou Dorfsman and CBS Corporate Entertainment and News Divisions

CBS Radio Entertainment & News Division Affiliate Promotion Literature. Traveling cardboard "suitcase" of promotional content for CBS 1953-1954 daytime and nighttime weekday and weekend radio programming. Ephemera including 40 and 100 word type written promotional announcement scripts for each show, 8.5" x 11" silver gelatin print headshots of headlining star actors, ad mats and proofs for promotional "Radio Goes Wherever You Go!" campaign, full size newsprint advertising layout examples, and more. Two portfolio boxes, one white containing daytime programming materials in yellow folders, one black containing nighttime programming materials in blue folders. Both boxes adorned with screen printed promotional stickers. Graphic design by Lou Dorfsman.