Researching ERJ
The repository for ER Johnson’s Papers, for the period of 1885-1976 is located at the University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center in Laramie, WY.  These valuable papers are not yet available on-line but perhaps you can accelerate the university's Digital Initiative Program by making an on-line donation to the University’s American Heritage Center, just click here to learn more.
Incidentally, not far from Laramie is the Collaborative (formerly Colorado) Digitization Program where you can learn how to preserve your cylinder and disc phonograph and gramophone records. This document is located at the CO Digitization Program.

There are a few rare books available to research Eldridge.  They include a booklet Eldridge Reeves Johnson (1867-1945) Industrial Pioneer: Founder and President of the Victor Talking Machine Company, a biography written by Johnson’s wife, Elsie R. Fenimore Johnson.  And there's an amplification of that booklet called His Master’s Voice was Eldridge R. Johnson, updated in 1974 by Eldridge's son, E. R. Fenimore Johnson.  The author E. R. Fenimore Johnson, who calls himself 'son Fen' throughout the book should not be confused with the original author, his mother, Elsie Reeves Fenimore Johnson who published the original booklet in 1951, considered rare as only 1000 were printed.

PhonoJack's Opinion
I don't think son Fen's updated work presents an objective picture of his father Eldridge and the people with whom he worked at the VTMC.   Even the basic assumption of the book's title, His Master's Voice was Eldridge R. Johnson is not correct, as His Master's Voice was an evolution of an idea, a collection of many people and technologies and the "combination of circumstances' about which Johnson himself had written.   Whether Fen was continuing some of the business saber rattling and legal battles in which his father had engaged or if he attempted to rewrite some history to present the Johnson name in a more favorable light, I really don't know.  But as there are many glaring inaccuracies throughout son Fen's book, some of which I believe are intentional, we should triangulate information sources to validate some of son Fen's commentary.  

I believe Johnson's son Fen downplayed the role Emile Berliner and his team played in developing and launching phonograph technology and the business, specifically the VTMC and The Gramophone Companies in Europe and Canada.  Son Fen uses the unflattering term 'Berliner crowd' in describing Emile Berliner and the group that took 40% of the Johnson business. Documents and correspondence between the two confirm that Eldridge Johnson and Emile Berliner were in fact very good friends, each believing the other was a fair business partner. 

Son Fen gives little credit to and doesn't mention many key people in Johnson's organization.  For example, he provides no information about machinist Levi Montross who was the chief designer of the early clockwork motors which dramatically improved upon Berliner's designs and to whom Johnson paid royalties for each gramophone that he manufactured for Berliner.  Perhaps son Fen avoids including Montross because it was Montross who later designed the competitive "Zonophone branded" gramophone for Frank Seaman who was then sales agent for Berliner and president of the National Gramophone Company.  As noted elsewhere in the PhonoJack site, 'bad guy' Frank Seaman attempted to sell and for a while succeeded in circumventing Johnson and Berliner. Seaman won a landmark court decision which ultimately was the cause of the end of the Berliner Gramophone business in the United States.  This court decision later helped paved the way for merging the business, patents and marketing of Berliner's and Johnson's companies which became VTMC a move that was brilliantly executed Eldridge R. Johnson. 

Son Fen minimized the very real threat posed by the Zonophone Company and thus minimizes the intelligence and business skills his father used to overcome this threat.  For example, Son Fen says the Zonophone product was inferior. This is simply not true; it was well-engineered and an overall tough competitor and later a successful product line within the Gramophone family after Zonophone had been acquired.  Had The Gramophone Company not shut down the manufacturing and supply of the Zonophone line, it would have survived longer than the 5-6 years after acquisition.

The Zon-o-phone machine introduced in 1898 and Zon-o-phone brand records are highly collectable today.  I think these will dramatically increase in value as today there are very few collectors focusing on this brand. They are rarely found on eBay or at auctions.

Son Fen also diminishes his father's name by magnifying his father's involvement with the His Master's Voice (Nipper) logo.  Eldridge should be remembered for his brilliance in the machine shop, his engineering skills, his business acumen, legal maneuvering, integrity, generosity and vision.   As for sales and marketing skills, the first prize should be shared by key contributors including William Barry Owen founder of The Gramophone Company (now EMI) for whom I'm developing a much needed biography elsewhere on this site.  Leon Forrest Douglass, later Johnson's sales and marketing chief in the United States deserves much credit for the ultimate success of the Victor Talking Machine Company. 

Son Fen takes a many unfair shots at William Barry Owen who was hired by Berliner and later supported by Johnson at the time he was sent to England to organize, seek venture financing for and to manage the Gramophone Companies in England, Germany, France and Russia.  Son Fen gives much of the credit for the early success at the British and German Gramophone companies to managers Trevor Williams and Alfred Clark and recording engineers Fred and Will Gaisberg who no doubt were key contributors. However during the early days it was William Barry Owen who brought the much needed business (manufacturing volume and scale) from England and Europe to keep Johnson's business alive.

In the summer of summer of 1895 William Barry Owen was the largest buyer and seller of Berliner's gramophones.  It was Owen's confidence, enthusiasm and personal credibility with Johnson and Berliner that convinced them to move forward and manufacture the initial order for 500 Berliner gramophones (with Johnson's spring motor) and subsequent 3000 unit order that effectively launched the Berliner/Johnson business.  While others dreamed that a spring wound motor would succeed, it was Owen who delivered on the promise convincing thousands to buy the dream and the promise.  Son Fen says Owen made an exorbitant demands on the Gramophone Company, was fired and that he ultimately returned to America where he lived out his remaining years as a farmer on Long Island.  None of this is true.   Owen was not fired as reported, he politely resigned and requested his deputy Theodore Birnbaum be his replacement to facilitate a smooth transition and change of control at the helm in London. 

There can be no debate about whether Eldridge Reeves Johnson continued to support Emile Berliner's decision to send William Barry Owen to England and manage the Gramophone business there.  At the time he received Owen's recommendation that Birnbaum be his successor, Johnson sent a reply urging Owen to stay with the company. Johnson wrote that although Birnbaum was particularly helpful developing the company, he could never fill Owen's shoes.

For a more objective, accurate look into Johnson's Victor Talking Machine Company, I'd trust the unpublished biography of Leon Forrest Douglass who was Johnson's Vice President of Sales, General Manager and perhaps closest business associate.  This is yet another well researched article written by Tim Gracyk who has the typed, spiral-bound unpublished autobiography of Leon Forrest Douglass.

Robert W. Baumbach's Look for the Dog, an Illustrated Guide to Victor Talking Machines (the new 2005 color print, hard cover version) is a limited print edition of 200 copies presents a short history of Victor Talking Machines Company and Eldridge Reeves Johnson's role in the company.  Baumbach's work is outstanding and accurate as he uses sworn testimony and depositions that Johnson was forced to provide to the courts during VTMC's legal proceedings. The paperback version of the book Look for the Dog the VTM Companion does not include the VTMC and Johnson history. 

Another good source of information is the on line history of The Victor Talking Machine Company, in Appendix XIII, by Eldridge Reeves Johnson – A very modest  autobiography accessible by clicking here.

Published in 1991 by the General Electric Company, author Frederick O. Barnum III's work, "His Master's Voice in America" has a comprehensive history of The Victor Talking Machine Company from 1901-1929 and its founder Eldridge Reeves Johnson. Containing not previously published material about the VTMC, this well-written, historical reference is also very rare and can sometimes be found in on-line rare and out-of-print book dealers, typically priced at $300 each. From time to time, this book can be found on eBay, but usually sells at a premium.

Finally, any serious researcher should look into the EMI Archives in Hayes, West London where the team there carefully take care of years of correspondence including business letters, personal and business notes, telegrams and telexes between many of the business pioneers in the phonograph and gramophone industries.  A special thanks to Ruth Edge, now retired who carefully managed the EMI Archives and graciously gave me assistance and access to early British Gramophone and Gramophone and Typewriter (G&T) documents.