About the Fred Sammons Archives

The Fred Sammons Archive Project, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee R2D2 Center, organizes the entirety of Fred Sammons’ archives personal, business, and career-related into a digitized and searchable online database for public use. It provides accessible references for students, educators, researchers, and practitioners. The archival material contains 4,800 pages of documents, 30+ hours of video, and 70 physical artifacts, including product prototypes.

As a part of developing this archive, Dr. Roger O. Smith conducted 10 studio interviews with Fred about his upbringing, early career, product creative process, and the philosophies underlying this revolutionary inventor and educator.

A photograph of Roger Smith and Fred Sammons at the American Occupational Therapy Association Conference.

The website (www.fredsammons.org) hosts the archival materials for worldwide access. It’s design intentionally contains accessibility components futuristic for such archives. These consist of audio descriptions, closed captions, and transcriptions. These also include brief and essential text descriptions of illustrations or illegible documents, artifacts, and photographs. The site also presents “Fred’s notes,” where Fred, himself, has recorded audio descriptions of many of his handwritten memos, doodles, margin notations, and drawings.

For another brief overview, see this article.


Introductory Videos for the Fred Sammons Archives

Welcome to the Fred Sammons Archive

Roger welcomes Fred and describes the interview process.

Audio Introduction



Introduction to the Fred Sammons Archive

Roger introduces the overall content and organization of the Fred Sammons Archives.

Audio Introduction



Master Archive Resources

Physical Artifacts

The archive physical artifacts, including documents, photographs, and objects are stored at the Wilma L West Library at the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The address of the AOTF headquarters is:

4720 Montgomery Lane
Suite 202
Bethesda, MD 20814

If a researcher would like to see the artifacts in person, contact Mindy A. Hecker at mhecker@aotf.org or call at 240-292-1045.

The physical artifacts are archived in 9 separate boxes. The master database spreadsheet identifies the box location of each artifact. To access the correct box the researcher will need the artifact ID number of the artifact. The artifact ID number in column B (artifact_ID) and corresponds with column F (aotf_box) that identifies the box where the artifact resides.

Database Codes and Download

Download of the full metadata for the electronic files available on the Fred Sammons Archives here. The physical storage box numbers are listed in this spreadsheet, so in the event that the physical artifact is needed, the item can be found in the specified storage box.

Full Videos of Interviews

The following videos showcase full days of interviews, and may be of interest to researchers.

Day One Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Two Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Three Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Four Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Five Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Six Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Seven Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Eight Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Nine Interviews

Audio Introduction



Day Ten Interviews

Audio Introduction



The Fred Sammons Archive Development Team

We thank the following team members for their contribution to creating the Fred Sammons Archives.

R2D2 Center

  • Roger O. Smith
  • Nathan Spaeth
  • Drew Williams
  • Colleen Regan
  • Jack Skelton- Miller
  • Meg Zimont
  • Ariana Pelkey
  • Nicole Latzig
  • Bavana Gaddam
  • Caitlin Dobson
  • Kathryn Kober

University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee

  • Frank Campenni
  • Jessica McCall
  • Lionel Rocheleau

Other Parties

  • Creekside Digital
  • Fred Sammons
  • Fred Brack
  • Terry VanderMeer
  • Rev.Com
  • American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF)