Steven N. Stitzer and Steve Huettner
Figure 1. The IMS2022 Historical Exhibit.
The IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) Historical Exhibit (Figure 1) will be on display during the full 2023 Microwave Week at the San Diego Convention Center. It will be located near the commercial exhibit hall. The display features artifacts and documents highlighting the invention and development of our microwave technologies, going back in time as much as a century ago. The earliest artifacts in the collection are examples of split anode magnetron oscillator tubes developed by MTT-S microwave pioneer Ross Kilgore in the early 1930s. These tubes were producing microwaves in the 1.6–20-GHz range. The latest artifacts currently held are solid-state devices and traveling wave tubes from the 1990s. The earliest books in the collection are the Naval Electrician’s Text and Handbook and Wireless Telegraphy from the 1900s. Recent acquisitions include the collected papers of several notable Society members, including the personal notebooks of the late Seymour Cohn. This year, we also plan to have an interactive kiosk featuring short videos illustrating the history of microwave engineering.
The MTT-S Historical Collection is currently housed at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, MD, USA. The Museum holdings include many microwave-related items, including components and radar systems from Hughes, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, RCA, Western Electric, and Westinghouse, as well as communications and countermeasures equipment from a variety of companies and laboratories. The museum is currently closed and will be leaving its present location near Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport by the end of March 2023. Several outdoor exhibits will remain onsite at 1745 West Nursery Road in Linthicum, MD, USA, for a time after the museum moves. These exhibits include the SCR-270 (Pearl Harbor) radar antenna, German Wurzburg radar antenna, U.S. Navy XAF shipborne radar antenna, Nike Ajax missile defense equipment, and SPG-55 shipborne radar antenna. The museum plans to resume its offerings of numerous educational and hands-on programs after the move. These programs annually reached more than 5,000 students at onsite and offsite events. More information can be found at https://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3242953