< June 20-21, 1970 > REPORT ON THE 1ST NATIONAL INSULATOR MEET; New Castle, Indiana
by Dora Harned

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire",, August 1970, page 3

It was wonderful! Nicest thing that ever happened in insulators. Meeting the collectors and subscribers from all over the United States is the greatest. It is stimulating and very educational. Try to imagine (for those of you who didn't attend) 95 tables of goodies on two different floors and the wear on the stairs in between. --Plus hundreds of collectors and visitors that didn't have tables.

There was so much going on all the time that it was difficult to leave your table to talk to the other collectors that had tables and to see what they had for sale or trade. I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I saw insulators that up until now I've only seen in sketches or pictures or heard about. There was a case of mint glass blocks. I say mint because these were found in an old warehouse or building and had never been used. (Price range approx. $750 each). Also there was a “dog ears” or “pluto ears” (plus two badly damaged ones). I didn't find out the price on this one as it was already traded or sold when I saw it. Some of the other rare insulators at the show that were traded for or sold were: Columbia No. 2, Boston Bottle Works (I believe there are at least four different styles or embossings of Boston Bottle), U. S. Tel. unthreaded, McKee unthreaded, threadless Mexican insulator, cutters (both porcelain and glass), Jumbo, Calif. Helmets purple and yellow, Calif. one piece transposition purple, CD 200, K one piece transposition, Chambers, Herningray-60 (Mickey Mouse ears) in a beautiful blue (not cobalt, but definitely blue), New England National Spiral, McLaughlin U. S. L. D., and you name an insulator, it was probably there. The Liquid insulator was on display by the Roy Gollihughs of Oregon. I would hate to try to guess how many insulators were in that one building, from Herningray-42's on up. I couldn't possibly mention all the different 
insulators any more than I could possibly mention all the collectors that were there. 

t would fill a large set of encyclopedias. Because our space is limited I can only show a few of the pictures taken at the show. I'm truly sorry we can't show them all. It would give everyone that couldn't attend more of an idea of how large this meet was.

It was really almost frantic at times with people coming and going, milling around, asking questions, trading, selling, buying, hunting through boxes for that certain insulator someone was interested in that you know you packed but couldn't find.

Don and I didn't even get all of our different traders on the table as I'm sure many others didn't either. We didn't really get to meet everyone we would have liked to meet and talk with but we enjoyed everyone we did meet. From the letters we have received since we came back home everyone seemed to have the same problem:  not enough time for everything. Since there were two floors of insulators and collectors, "Crown Jewels" awarded two ribbons, one for each floor. The winner are below:

Top Floor

Dennis Donovan is awarded for his unique collection of Hemingrays (The coat hangers don't count). Since it is impossible to print all eighty pictures, I have tried to pick out pictures of collectors from the different states just to give you the idea of how many  states were represented and also pictures of collectors that perhaps you have traded with but haven't met.

You can review the photos of the 1st National Show at the National Insulator Association website: http://www.nia.org/nathist/1970.htm