The Historical Electronics Museum grew out of a Westinghouse Family Day in 1973. Robert Dwight, an employee of the Westinghouse Defense and Electronics Systems Center in Baltimore, Maryland and a key planner of Family Day, saw the event as an opportunity to display employee products that their families had previously not had the opportunity to see. Titled “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, three airborne radars, the AERO-13/AN/APQ-50, the AN/APQ-120 and the WX-200 respectively, were set out as examples of each era. Throughout the day, Mr. Dwight made the same observation: employees and their families were excited and proud to see the finished products of their work.
This excitement was shared by Mr. Dwight. He decided to purse actively more radars and other electronic equipment to display to fellow colleagues. Enlisting the help of Jack Sun, a Westinghouse employee, formerly with the United States Air Force, Mr. Dwight wanted to acquire the radar from a BOMARC missile from the Department of Defense (DOD). This missile carried the AN/DPN-53, the first airborne pulse-doppler radar. The two men quickly ran into a dead end. According to the DOD, they could not obtain the BOMARC radar unless they were a legally qualified non-profit museum.
Both Mr. Dwight and Mr. Sun approached senior Westinghouse lawyer Butch Gregory for advice and aid in drawing up the papers necessary to create a legitimate museum. It was a long period before it was realized. Finally, in 1980 the Historical Electronics Museum was incorporated in the State of Maryland as a non-profit museum.
Westinghouse provided much needed support in the form of financial aid and storage facilities. In 1983, a 2,000 square foot space was dedicated to the museum at Airport Square III, near the present location. In 1986, this space was expanded to approximately 4,000 square feet. Previously operated with a volunteer staff, the museum hired its first professional staff member in 1989. In 1992 the museum relocated to its current location at Friendship Square.
Corporate support was continued by the Northrop Grumman - Electronic Systems after it purchased Westinghouse Defense and Electronics Systems Center in 1996. Plans for expanding within the current location were developed in 1998 and in 1999 the museum was closed for months while under construction. In September 1999, the doors were opened again to reveal a doubling in size to 22,000 of indoor space, including a new events and meeting space, a new exhibition gallery, a climate controlled storage area, an exhibition laboratory, a conference room and a half an acre of outdoor exhibit space.
The museum continues to grow with the addition of new permanent outdoors exhibits and improved landscaping. Indoor gallery spaces are being redesigned and updated. Educational programming such as the Young Engineers and Scientists Seminars (YESS) and the Robot Festival are offered on a yearly basis with more to come. And the museum has established the Robert L. Dwight Science Scholarship awarded to outstanding engineering for the University of Maryland and University of Maryland – Baltimore County. Finally the Museum benefits greatly for the support of grants and donations from various agencies and engineering societies.
Members of the Board of Directors include individuals from institutions such as Westinghouse Defense and Electronics Systems Center, Northrop Grumman - Electronic Systems, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Carnegie Institute, American Association of Museums, the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Allied Signal, and Hertzbach & Company. The staff has grown to two full time museum professionals and a part-time museum administrator. The volunteer corps consists of over thirty people who donate regularly over 5,000 hours a year.
As the founders envisioned it, the museum is a place for visitors to be exposed to the technological achievements and advances by the aforementioned companies and others like them. It also allows those people who have been involved with the objects to look back and share their accomplishments. The Historical Electronics Museum has evolved into an institution that not only appeals to engineers, but to students and the non-technical public as well. We offer people the opportunity to see and experience the “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” of the defense electronics industry.
