Preserving Your Antique Radio Collection

Preservation (as opposed to restoration) is concerned with prevention of decay. The talk will start from very general preservation policy basics, then explain that preventing decay in practice involves understanding what materials are present, what goes wrong with those materials, and what environmental forces and human actions can influence the rate of decay. Storage conditions play a pivotal role in mitigating all such damage. The talk will present examples of environment-related deterioration such as warping of tenite grilles (chemical change), metal corrosion (rusting chassis parts, capacitor failures), mold growth (on everything) and mechanical damage (cracking of wood). Beyond these material issues, survival of collections beyond the lifetime of the collector (or the lifetime of the collector’s fascination with them) often depends on the collector’s willingness to engage with institutions like the AWA Museum to understand their mission, policies and resources. Planning for the generation of stewardship that comes after the original collector is a vital part of preserving any type of collection.
Brief Bio of James Reilly:
James M. Reilly, B.A., M.A., founded and directed the Image Permanence Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology for 32 years until his retirement in 2017. He and his staff have been responsible for many advances in preservation of photographs and library and archives materials in general. He is the author of two books on 19th-century photography and numerous technical publications. He has been honored for his work by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Library Association, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the American Institute for Conservation. He has lectured and consulted with museums, libraries and archives all over the world.
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[@wacoflyer]

Compels me to seriously consider the fate of my restored and unrestored radio collections. Having them end up in a dumpster is horribly frightening!

[@butterbean4195]

thats why i sold 3/4 of my collection. i know most where sold to good radio collector nuts who love old stuff. I know a local CB/Ham/Shortwave guy who passed and his family dumped 100`s of radios/antennas/amps in a roll away dumpster, i was able to save 6 of them

[@donalddesnoo5303]

Have trf and s het philco cathedral s and a 4 tube 30s PHILCO clock radio and a parts chassis 2 WORK 57 HOTPOINT TV RED/WHITE ALSO LIKE YOUR VIDEOS ON SPARK TRANSMISSION.

[@donalddesnoo5303]

Ps theres a guy ony tube under glasslinger makes early tubes .

[@mackfisher4487]

Excellent presentation very informative