A Columbus collector’s fascination with radios comes across loud and clear in the newest exhibit at the Bartholomew County Historical Society Museum.
It features more than 400 Arvin radios, from four-foot-high console floor models to neon-shaded transistor styles and others made of genuine cowhide.
Arvin Industries Inc., which operated in Columbus from 1925 to 2011, developed a diverse product portfolio over its history. While its origins were as an automotive supplier, Arvin in 1930 — then known as Noblitt-Sparks Industries — also began producing household products at the onset of the Great Depression. By 1937, the company whose name would not become Arvin Industries for another 13 years, was making 33 different radio models for the home.
You can see many of them in the massive collection of former Columbus resident Larry Ruble, now of Edinburgh, starting with a free, opening reception at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Items in Ruble’s Arvin display, donated to the museum last year, will be featured for at least the next few months, with no current ending date.
“This is going to be quite a trip down memory lane for many people,” said Diane Robbins, the historical society’s executive director.
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
