The Rockwell Collins Museum is always looking for interesting artifacts to add to its collection.
Is your basement presently harboring a mysterious piece of electronics, perhaps an engineering model of an early product? Did a family member ask you to store a black box saying, "Keep this - someday it may be of interest to a Museum"? If so, contact our Museum Curator, Lawrence Robinson with a description of your treasure. Send an email here.
Collins Radio Company Records
by: Ghis Devlaminck
posted: November 10, 2011
Many of the early Collins Radio Company records are stored at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.
In an experiment, the company is opening the museum to limited public tours.
The tours will be offered from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, and will leave promptly from the south entrance of building 120. Arrangements can be made by calling Lawrence Robinson at 295-1698.
Because of security requirements a passport or driver’s license is needed to provide identification.
Meeting Announcements
Friday, February 17th, 2012 - 12:00 PM Rockwell Collins History CoP
Building 106-205 Auditorium
12:00-1:00
Subject: Advanced Technology Center
This Month in History - February
February 1st, 1942 The first women production workers were hired at Collins Radio Co.
February 3rd, 1934 Admiral Richard Bird makes his first formal radio transmission from the Antarctic using the Collins 150B and 20B.
February 25th, 1987 The man who started it all, Arthur Andrew Collins, died at the age of 77.
Legendary Spy Radio Donated Back to Rockwell Collins
Excerpted from a KCRG TV9 article
by: Dave DeWitte, Reporter
posted: August 10, 2010
CEDAR RAPIDS – An unheralded group of Vietnam War-era Army signals intelligence officers took a step into the daylight Friday to donate one of their favorite radios back to its manufacturer.
The 265th Radio Research Company used many radios in their service in Vietnam from 1967 to 1972, but the R-390A HF (high-frequency) receiver they donated to the Rockwell Collins museum was something special, they said.
Lawrence Robinson, who oversees Rockwell Collins’ corporate museum, said almost everything in the museum has been donated to the company. He thanked the group for the 1952-vintage radio, one of the earlier models produced.
“The stories about this radio are legendary,” Robinson said. “There are still urban legends circulating that there are old-timers deep in the bowels of these three-letter agencies using them.”
Rockwell Collins has had a corporate museum since 1983 for its clients and employees.
We are looking for a couple of missing issues of the Collins Column magazine. What we are looking for is a non-bound issue that will allow us to scan the contents for our web page. We have bound copies but they are difficult to lay on the scanner. The missing are: Issue 9, December 1943 Issue 10, January 1944 Issue 33, December 1945 If you can help, drop an email to here. The mail will go to Larry and Rod.
Museum Club member, Rod Blocksome is spearheading a project to catalog all of the the people’s names mentioned in every one of the first 45 issues of Collins Column. The task at hand is to transcribe every name and page number from an assigned issue into an Excel Spreadsheet that he has prepared. When completed, a viewer will be able to search for any person’s name mentioned in the collection. If you are interested in joining Rod with this project, send him an email. We could use your help - there are still lots of issues left...
