THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL PHOTO ARCHIVE • FRAMED PRINTS • STOCK IMAGES

The Jersey Shore circa 1905. "Along the beach, Atlantic City, N.J." Note the radio mast at right on Young's Pier. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.

Philadelphia circa 1928. "Atwater Kent Factory for T.R. Shipp." Assembling the Atwater Kent Model 47, back when radios were the iPad of their day. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

August 21, 1924. Washington, D.C. "Dr. David Todd & C.F. Jenkins." Scroll down to the comments for an explanation of this unusual device. Thanks to Splunge, Stanton Square and others for filling in the blanks. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co." Vintage switchgear in abundance. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

December 1919. Washington, D.C. "Sorting machine, U.S. Census." Getting ready to tabulate the 1920 Census. Under-height operators will please furnish their own boxes. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Detroit circa 1906. "Detroit Publishing Co., northwest view." Note the greenhouse-style glass to the right employing sunlight for printing and perhaps enlargement, as well as the unusual windows to the left. In the early years of the 20th century, the company was one of the world's biggest producers of color postcards. Panorama made from two 8x10 inch glass negatives. View full size.

Chicago, December 1942. "Hump master in a Chicago & North Western railroad yard operating a signal switch system which extends the length of the hump track. He is thus able to control movements of locomotives pushing the train over the hump from his post at the hump office." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1924. "Brent Daniel, formerly of the Radio Laboratory of the Bureau of Standards at Washington, with the first portable Super-Heterodyne, his own design. The seven vacuum tubes, batteries, loop antenna, loudspeaker and other necessary units are completely self-contained in the carrying case. He has been able to hear Pacific Coast stations from this outfit." View full size.

Detroit circa 1905. "Detroit City Gas Company office, heater." Note the photographer or his assistant holding the drape. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Democratic National Committee." The convention hall in the old Liberty Market. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1918. "Bankers Automatic Receiving Teller Co." These machines (designed to look like little bank buildings) were used, among other places, in the D.C. schools into the 1930s to encourage thrifty habits. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "National Radio School." Some of the equipment at the high-tech technical school seen here. National Photo Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1926. "Industrial Exposition, Frigidaire." A chilling display at Washington Auditorium. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

July 1942. Melrose Park, Illinois. "Production of aircraft engines. Buick plant. Foreman F.I. Bowman shows Marietta Morgan how to operate this bomb-test machine used to test reconditioned spark plugs. A young Negro girl, Marietta had been a clerk in a meat market. Her lack of industrial experience, however, has been no handicap for her present war job in a large Midwest airplane plant. She's rapidly becoming a skilled and efficient machine operator." Medium format safety negative by Ann Rosener for the Office of War Information. View full size.

It's a sobering thought that this accumulation of consumer audio gear, though approaching high-end levels but not all that esoteric for the period, may look as archaic to present-day eyes as those examples of enormous, steampunk-like telephone and radio contraptions we've see here on Shorpy. Maybe if it was all black enamel rather than brushed aluminum it wouldn't look so old-hat, er, I mean retro. Of all this stuff all I have left is the turntable; a visiting friend recently took out his cell phone and snapped a photo of it in action, then emailed it to his daughter. He said she'd never seen a record playing.

Lest anyone think that some form of perverse, fetishistic self-absorbtion inspired this as well as Beam Me Up, I took these photos as a status update for a fellow audio and video enthusiast friend who had moved out of state sometime previously.

A Kodachrome slide which, in keeping with the theme of nostalgic technological obsolescence, was processed by Fotomat. View full size.