For more than 70 years , RadioShack was an electronics hobbyist ’s promised land . It went bankrupt multiple clip in the retiring tenner and now it ’s been sold for parts . Its X accountfamously shill cryptowith eye - catching NSFW posts . But the glory days of RadioShack experience on thanks to the panoptic archiving efforts ofRadioShack Catalogs — a site that ’s meticulously digitize seven ten of the store ’s catalogs .
From 1939 to 2011 , RadioShack published a catalog that permit users surf its various electronic minute from the comfort of their menage . Some of them are hundreds of pages long and allow a windowpane into America ’s past tense . What was Raytheon before it was a ship’s company that built missile ? Page 8 of thevery first RadioShack catalogshows you a friendly Raytheon that sold renewal void tubes for radios .
Every catalog is present in a digitized and easy to take data format . Browsers even play a legal clip of a page flipping when you move through the catalogue . “ In a world where technology continues to encourage , this digital repository ensures that the remembering , Cartesian product , and innovations of RadioShack will forever be accessible to those who wish well to reminisce and appreciate the enduring impact of this iconic retailer , ” the site say .
The cover of the 2000 edition of the RadioShack catalog.© Image via RadioShack Catalogs.
The catalog chronicle America ’s past as catch through the lens of electronics nerds . An eagle is emblazoned on the book binding of the 1945 catalogue , its outline housing soldiers , a warplane , and a naval vessel . The 1965 catalog looks like a sci - fi mush screening and prove a Eruca vesicaria sativa blasting through space surrounded by strange major planet . The 2002 catalogue is full of barcodes designed to figure out with CueCats , a brief technological fad had people hooking up a computed axial tomography shaped barcode image scanner to their personal computer .
RadioShack Catalogs also has a YouTube communication channel housing 273 different videos that constitute the pick up television ephemera of the store . There ’s grooming videos , commercial , internal sales demonstrations , and commercials for long forgotten devices . Did you know RadioShack had a theme song in the 1980s ? Now you could hear it .
There ’s also interior text file detailing the history of the company , commercials , and even reprinting of “ Answers ” magazine . “ put out in the 1980s , Tandy ’s Answers Magazine was a complimentary slick glossy powder store grow by Tandy Corporation for information on its variant rail line of home and business data processor , ” the site explains .
Curating the world ’s RadioShack info is n’t garish or well-off work and the website ’s owner is looking for service . “ The process of meticulously disassembling , hand - scanning , digitally raise images , organizing , and prepare each catalog page for on-line screening is incredibly meter - consuming . Additionally , there are continuous expense involved in acquiring new publication , acquit research , assert web hosting , and covering other web - related costs to keep this site running , ” the internet site says , next to a button where masses can donate to help cover their costs .
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