Marconi and Seas: Happy World Radio Day!

I love radio. I listen to AM radio every morning, had a college radio show for a few years and I even built a radio that totally sorta works. 

I also happen to live in St. John's, Newfoundland where Nobel Prize winner and inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, received the first transatlantic wireless signal, proving that wireless communication was possible. Often credited at the inventor of radio, it seems fitting to share a few pictures of Marconi and his assistants setting up to receive that groundbreaking signal.

Happy World Radio Day Everyone!

Marconi sits in the operations room he used in an old hospital on Signal Hill, December 1901.
Courtesy of The Rooms Provincial Archives; A66-145

Marconi assistants stand outside Cabot Tower, St. John's, NL., 1901
Courtesy of The Rooms Provincial Archives; B1-97

Cranky old Mr. Edison called FAKE NEWS on Marconi. Of course!

Wartime Wrestling and Old-timey Boxing

To be fair, I don't sports well...or at all. I have far more memories of getting hit in the face than I do of actual game play. Regardless, organized sports are a strong part  of Newfoundland and Labrador culture.  Whether it's tennis, curling, hockey, soccer, wrestling, rugby or lacrosse, you name it and we've played it.

Royal Newfoundland Regiment Soldiers Wrestling, 1915
 [B 3-12]
Courtesy of: The Rooms Provincial Archives

The Rooms Provincial Archives has a substantial collection of materials relating to professional and amateur sporting activities in Newfoundland and Labrador. The collection consists of personal and business correspondence, scrapbooks, over 5,000 photographs, newspaper clippings, ephemera, minute books, record books, financial statements, and other sports organizational records from approximately 1820 to the present. To learn more, visit the Sports Archive page.

Daily Star [1915-04-17]

St. John's Boxers

Item consists of Portrait of St. John's boxers of the 1930s.
L-R: M. Baird, Phillip Knowling, Pat Dobbin, Frank Stamp and
Tom "Pussyfoot" Benson. Frank Stamp is wearing his championship belt.
Three trophies on table in between boxers.
Frank Stamp was the Light Heavyweight Champion.