The vision that evolved into the American Museum of Radio and Electricity was born a half-century ago in Santa Barbara, California. A young man named Jonathan Winter was captivated by the programs and music that came from old radios. He loved tinkering with them and began to collect as many as he could. Through the years, he accumulated an array of radio sets and spare parts, along with schematics, recordings, and vintage magazines and manuals.

In 1985, he found a small space in the oldest part of Bellingham, Washington, and began to share his collection with other like-minded radio fans. He rather off-handedly dubbed it the Bellingham Antique Radio Museum, mindful that museums are rightfully dedicated to learning as much as to the mere display of objects.

He was a little surprised to see that a steady stream of visitors found their way to this new “museum.” Without any formal publicity, word-of-mouth brought radio buffs, hobbyists, collectors, older folks whose memories of days long past were rekindled by a glimpse of a radio from their childhood, and schoolchildren of this generation, some in search of information for science projects, others curious about the wondrous gadgets and looking for opportunities to tinker with them. Real publicity arrived soon after, as the Museum was featured in ABC Television’s An American Moment, narrated by James Earl Jones.

Jonathan soon had to find a slightly larger space and then another, as the collection grew and the number of visitors increased. Over the years, the Bellingham Antique Radio Museum functioned as a gathering place in the community, almost as if it were a radio shop of the 1930s. But it sold nothing. Instead, visitors were offered a unique, hands-on opportunity to visit an earlier time. They could handle vintage radios. They hooked them up, made them work, turned their knobs, and actually experienced the wonder of these and other examples of broadcast and entertainment technology from the early 20th century.

This was all made official in 1998 with the establishment of the Bellingham Antique Radio Museum as a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. Jonathan Winter’s collection of more than 800 rare radios from the 1920s formed the foundation of the Museum’s collection. He became President and Curator; an active and committed Board of Directors was assembled; and planning for the future began in earnest.

In 1995, another devotee of early radio discovered the Bellingham Antique Radio Museum. John Jenkins, struck in his youth by the same spark as Jonathan Winter, had been an avid collector of vintage radios and related scientific apparatus, as well as rare books and manuscripts about early investigations into the phenomenon of electricity. His collection and the vision he shared with Jonathan led him to participate in planning for the Museum’s future, albeit on an intermittent basis for a number of years, because of the demands of his career as general manager of worldwide sales and marketing for Microsoft Corporation. His collecting and his involvement with the Museum both garnered his full attention again, however, when he retired from Microsoft in February of 2001. He became Vice President and Co-Curator of the Bellingham Antique Radio Museum, working side-by-side with Jonathan Winter to plan the transformation of the Museum into the world’s best at presenting the historical development of radio communications and interpreting its relevance to today’s world.

It was the generosity of John Jenkins and his commitment to the Museum’s mission that made possible its expansion into more spacious quarters in June of 2001. Because its world-class collection now includes rare artifacts representing the historic development of electricity and early technology as well as vintage radio, the Bellingham Antique Radio Museum has become the American Museum of Radio and Electricity. Today, the Museum is dedicated to the interpretation of the relationship between the scientific exploration of electricity and the development of broadcast radio into its Golden Age—a story with immense cultural, historic, aesthetic, and scientific significance. Among the Museum’s current holdings are unique examples of early scientific instruments and 19th century electromagnetic apparatus, an outstanding collection of more than 10,000 vacuum tubes, and an authentic reproduction of the radio room on the Titanic displaying an original Marconi wireless set. The Museum presents these and thousands of other objects in a series of exciting, interactive exhibits designed to entertain and educate people of all ages. It is dedicated to the pursuit of learning and to the inspiring sense of discovery that new knowledge and experiences can bring.

The American Museum of Radio and Electricity is a powerhouse of educational possibilities, a place where visitors can electrify their imaginations and take a journey back in time.