Here’s another piece of Franklin Institute ephemera, likely from the late 1930s. One interesting aspect of this, is that its printed on waxed paper (like a magazine), which surprises me considering the age. A lot of this stuff likely got printed in FI’s own functional print shop, which I believe used to be housed behind glass walls (for public display) in the basement level (now office space). It was only natural for them to have a print shop, as Ben Franklin himself worked in a print shop for quite a while in his lifetime.
Continue reading “Franklin Institute – Flyer from 1930s?”Franklin Institute – Fire Island Lighthouse Light Postcard (1936)
After reviewing my FI stuff on here, not only did I find I goofed a bit on the tags and categories, but I found I didn’t even scan/post all of my FI stuff yet! That said, with my new-found time, let’s get to correcting that!
Show below is a postcard, postmarked in 1936 (when the current Franklin Institute building opened), showing a lighthouse light (originally from Fire Island Lighthouse in NY), that was taken out of service in 1933, and placed on display in the Franklin Institute likely from when the building opened, to around 2000, when the actual light was taken down and placed in storage.
Continue reading “Franklin Institute – Fire Island Lighthouse Light Postcard (1936)”Early Franklin Institute Memorabilia – Taylor and Smith 1874
Being a serial/multiple hobbyist means I often have to weigh how much I want to invest into a particular hobby, and for my “collection” hobbies, this can come with a cost of “missed opportunity” per se. Although I would have REALLY liked to have it, I decided not to bid, and missed out on an extremely early piece of Franklin Institute memorabilia last weekend.
Continue reading “Early Franklin Institute Memorabilia – Taylor and Smith 1874”At&t Tech/Archive Channel on Youtube is Addictive!
So the past few days I’ve been poking around in the Youtube channel “At&t Tech Channel”. Within that is the “At&t Archive” that hosts tons of old videos from At&t, Bell Labs and MA Bell. These videos are awesome for a variety of reasons; but other than the retro-futurism of them, it shows just how much MA Bell either “thought” or “was” the technology provider of the people back then. (At least until the Carterfone Decision)
It’s really interesting to see the concept videos showing paging for farms, how the “central office” was obsolete and going away, leading to *gasp* DIALING (and later push-button dialing), amongst other things.
It’s also interesting how a handful of these videos are somewhat local to the PA/NJ area, as the NJ Bell labs building was a substantial part of them back then, and (if I’m not mistaken) where a number of major innovations, including the invention of the transistor happened.
If you’re nerdy like me and need a new time waster, definitely check out this channel!
At&t Tech Channel (and archive): https://www.youtube.com/user/ATTTechChannel