[NJARC] Atwater Kent lecture and exhibit

[amagoun]

This just in from the Delaware Valley Archivists Group:

Atwater Kent Radios:  A Personal Legacy
Talk by Peter Kent

Saturday, March 31, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia
15 South 7th Street (between Market and Chestnut streets)
Free with AKMP admission:  adults, $5; seniors and ages 13-17, $3; AKMP
members, free.
Galleries open at 1:00 p.m.; refreshments served.

Peter Kent, grandson of A. Atwater Kent who was founder of the Atwater
Kent Manufacturing Company, leads a tour, shares objects from his
personal collection, and discusses the company’s role as a leader in
radio invention, manufacturing, promotion and distribution. Its
state-of-the-art factory, covering 35 acres at 4700 Wissahickon Avenue,
led the world in radio production in 1928, producing over one-million
sets

Held in conjunction with the exhibition Wonderful World of Radio,
continuing through September 16, 2007, the talk highlights rare radios
from the AKMP collection. These include Atwater Kent crystal detection
sets, Models 5 and 12, considered to be the Cadillac of Kent’s open sets
or breadboards. Also on display is Atwater Kent’s one millionth radio, a
Model 35 produced on December 6, 1926.

Radio captured the imagination of the American public in the 1920s in
the same way that computer technology did in the 1980s and 1990s. What
had originally been a technical system oriented to business and military
communications soon evolved into a source of entertainment for the whole
family.  Anyone who owned a receiver, whether made at home from an
inexpensive kit or a deluxe store-bought set, could enjoy the same
programs. Supporters extolled the potential of this medium to reach
across class barriers to offer educational and cultural programs. By
1930 over half of all American homes owned at least one radio, making it
the basis for a new American mass-culture.

Radio production flourished in the Philadelphia region during the first
half of the 20th century. Three of the country’s major companies had
their plants here: the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company and the Philco
Corporation in Philadelphia and in Camden, New Jersey the Radio
Corporation of America (RCA-Victor). The area also was home to numerous
other smaller manufacturing companies. By the mid-1920s the Philadelphia
region led the nation in the number of radios manufactured here. The
Atwater Kent Company alone employed approximately 4,000 people in 1929.
Radio production spurred related businesses including broadcasting and
advertising.