Amateur or “ham” radio is a hobby and communication service that has been bringing people together for over a century. Join ASU Associate Professor of History Eric Nystrom to discover the history of Arizona’s most famous ham radio operator, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater’s association with amateur radio began in his Arizona youth when he constructed his own equipment, and the politician again picked up the hobby as an adult after a long hiatus. He was famous for his longtime ham radio shack in Paradise Valley, now preserved and on display at the Arizona Historical Society. Known on the airwaves as K7UGA, Goldwater sponsored legislation to shape the regulation of amateur radio in the United States. Using his radios, Goldwater and a group of organized volunteers connected service members stationed in Vietnam with their families back in the United States. Learn about ham radio’s importance to Goldwater and his impact on the evolution of the amateur service in America.

Plan your visit to see Barry Goldwater’s famous ham radio shack, currently on display at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson. Open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Buy your tickets today: https://azhs.org/tickets/

**Please note: This program takes place Thursday, May 27**

Spanish colonial era terrestrial and shipwreck sites have been studied by archaeologists and historians for a century. Books and journal articles are full of artifacts made of ceramic, iron, and wood but those made of copper or copper alloys have been largely ignored. In 2017 the Copper on the Borderlands of New Spain (COTBONS) Project was started with the goal of creating a comprehensive study of copper sheet metal vessels. Over the past four years, collections dating from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and housed in repositories in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts (Peabody Museum), New Mexico, Texas and Washington, D.C (Smithsonian Institution) have been examined. In 2019, researchers visited the Arizona History Museum in Tucson to study the baptismal font in the museum’s collection. What can the study of this object’s copper tell us?

Join Dr. Russell K. Skowronek and Richard E. Johnson from the COTBONS Project for a special  presentation about the “Sacred copper” found in baptismal fonts, baptismal shells, and aspersorium across the Southwest.  Learn how researchers used documentary, photographic, and portable X-Ray fluorescence-derived archaeometric evidence to decipher information about these precious artifacts. 

With Arizona at the center of many national issues today, from immigration to climate change, what can historians do to ensure that Arizona’s past is better understood? What do we know about Arizona history today, and what do we need historians to study further? Join the Arizona Historical Society for a conversation about the future of Arizona history with some of the top historians working in the field today. All of the panelists published essays in a recent special issue of the Journal of Arizona History (Autumn/Winter 2020), which is available digitally here: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/43395.

Free event! Registration is required to receive the Zoom link.

Featured Speakers:

• Katherine Benton-Cohen
• Flannery Burke
• Geraldo Cadava
• Maurice Crandall
• Jennifer Denetdale
• Thomas Finger
• Priscilla Martinez
• Katherine Massoth
• Eric Meeks
• Katherine Morrissey
• Andrew Needham
• Megan Kate Nelson