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Title: Harold Atkinson Papers
Dates: 1916-1960
Collection Number: 2003-40
Creator/Collector:
Atkinson, Harold
Extent: .25 linear feet
Repository:
History San Jose Research Library
Abstract: Small set of papers originally belonging to radio operator Harold Atkinson, including a typed transcript of the broadcast
of the championship fight between Carpentier and Dempsey (1921) from the radio telephone installed at the Fairmont Hotel in
San Francisco, through co-operation of the San Francisco Bulletin and the Leo J. Meyberg Company.
Language of Material: English
The papers are available to the public for research, by appointment with the Curator of Library and Archives.
Harold Atkinson Papers. History San Jose Research Library
Donated to the Foothill Electronics Museum in 1986, received by History San Jose in 2003 as part of the Perham Collection
of Early Electronics.
Biography/Administrative History
From the limited information available in the papers, it would appear that Harold Atkinson was a commercial radio operator
in the early 1900s, and worked for The Holt Manufacturing Company, and possibly Haller-Cunningham/Leo J. Meyberg. The transcript
on Meyberg letterhead suggests that Atkinson may have participated in the Fairmont (6XG) radiotelephone broadcast of the Dempsey-Carpentier
fight. According to the July 1921 issue of Pacific Radio News, "all radio experimenters within range of 6XG are requested
to listen in at 10 a.m. when a musical program will be in progress. The first returns will probably reach San Francisco at
11 a.m. and immediately upon receipt of same they will be broadcasted from the Fairmont."
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers consist of
a) Letter to Electronic Museum from donor, Donald J. Seymour
b) Assorted radio technical diagrams, small brochures
c) ”First Sending Exercise Wireless”
d) Time Card for The Holt Manufacturing Company (1917)
e) Commercial Radio-Operator Examination for Harold Atkinson of Stockton, California (1917)
f) Transcript of broadcast of world’s championship fight between Carpentier and Dempsey (1921) from the radio telephone installed
at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, through co-operation of the San Francisco Bulletin and the Leo J. Meyberg Company.
(27 pages, some on Leo J. Meyberg letterhead). Leo J. Meyberg was the successor to the Haller-Cunningham Electric Company
at 428 Market Street, San Francisco.
g) Oakland Bank of Savings cancelled checks (1916)
h) technical drawings/notes on Haller-Cunningham Electric Co. letterhead (528 Market Street, San Francisco)
i) Envelope from the Hotel Senate, Turk St. at Larkin, San Francisco
j) U.S. Navy Yard blank Radio Telegraph paper
k) 1B and 1BA Telephone Answering Sets: Identification and Assembly of Parts, Bell System Practices, Issue 1, October 1960
l) Preliminary Instruction Book for Model RBL-2 Radio Receiving Equipment, Navy Department Bureau of Ships, Contract NXs-4683,
30 April 1942.
Boxing
Radio broadcasting--California--San Francisco Bay Area--History
Radiotelephone
Radio operators
Fairmont Hotel (San Francisco, Calif.)
Haller-Cunningham
Leo J. Meyberg Company