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All the United States Maryland Cockeysville National Electronics Museum
AO Edited

National Electronics Museum

Electronic inventions that resulted in products and systems we use every day are on display in this labor-of-love museum.

Cockeysville, Maryland

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Display at the National Electronics Museum   Daderot on WikiCommons
Display at the National Electronics Museum   Daderot on WikiCommons
From the Museum’s collection of phones   bobistraveling on Flickr
An early car phone from Motorola, 1964   Daderot on WikiCommons
Microwave from the 1956 World’s Fair, a joint project of Tappan, Raytheon, & Westinghouse   Daderot on WikiCommons
1960 model of a navigational satellite (from the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins)   Daderot on WikiCommons
Smith-Corona M-209 WW II era cipher - that is, code - machine   Daderot on WikiCommons
A 3-rotor Enigma Machine, its coding famously cracked during WW II   Daderot on WikiCommons
Tactical Surveillance Radar, one of the Museum’s large outdoor displays   bobistraveling on Flickr
Nike Ajax anti aircraft Missile Radar, c. 1953   bobistraveling on Flickr
Years of electronic advancements distilled in a 1949 Westinghouse TV   Daderot on WikiCommons
It’s not a robot, it’s a World War II era Klyston Oscillator Tube   Daderot on WikiCommons
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  e1savage / Atlas Obscura User
Playing with a theremin is SO much fun!   e1savage / Atlas Obscura User
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National Electronics Museum   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
National Electronics Museum   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The brainchild of a Westinghouse engineer from Baltimore, the National Electronics Museum was first dreamed up by Robert Dwight as an opportunity to show off his company’s best engineering bells and whistles.

In 1973 Dwight had been working for Westinghouse for over 20 years when he set out to collect and celebrate electronic and engineering marvels of the 20th century, many of which were declassified military projects. But collecting military hardware – even declassified or decommissioned hardware – proved challenging, unless you happened to be a bona fide non-profit public museum. It took a little time to get it all set up, but by 1980, just a few years after Dwight started his round-up of secret and not-so-secret electronics, his little idea to collect, commemorate and display some really Big Ideas was finally realized, and by 1983 it opened to the public.

Dwight had some back-up from other Westinghouse employees and engineers, and luckily they were able to enlist the support of their bosses. Westinghouse (and later Northrop Grumman) stepped up with both financial support and some real estate to house everything. At first the Museum was on the Westinghouse campus and staffed entirely by volunteers. But over the years the Museum expanded and moved a few times, eventually hiring full-time curatorial staff. And throughout its almost 40-year history it has continually collected and preserved some of the most impressive breakthrough technologies.

Now with over ten thousand objects in its collections, including radar and sonar, telecommunications, radio and TV, coding and code breaking, vacuum tubes and Cold War paraphernalia, the National Electronics Museum has quietly fulfilled its mission of honoring the achievements of true engineering pioneers. 

Related Tags

Museums And Collections Museums Electrical Oddities Military History Military

Know Before You Go

The National Electronics Museum recently moved from Linthicum Heights to 338 Clubhouse Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Community Contributors

Added By

returncorner

Edited By

e1savage, Ukrain1an, infoblogscelotehpraja, PKinDC...

  • e1savage
  • Ukrain1an
  • infoblogscelotehpraja
  • PKinDC
  • blimpcaptain

Published

January 8, 2016

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Sources
  • http://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org/
  • http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-04-09/news/bs-md-ob-robert-dwight-20140409_1_westinghouse-gibson-island-radar
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Electronics_Museum
  • https://www.celotehpraja.com
National Electronics Museum
338 Clubhouse Rd
Cockeysville, Maryland, 21031
United States
39.485784, -76.663269
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

System Source Computer Museum

Cockeysville, Maryland

miles away

Beaver Dam

Cockeysville, Maryland

miles away

Divine's Headstone

Towson, Maryland

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Cockeysville

Cockeysville

Maryland

Places 3

Nearby Places

System Source Computer Museum

Cockeysville, Maryland

miles away

Beaver Dam

Cockeysville, Maryland

miles away

Divine's Headstone

Towson, Maryland

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Cockeysville

Cockeysville

Maryland

Places 3

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