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Collins Column, Employee Newsletter
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The Collins Column was first published in early May 1943. The second issue quickly followed in late May 1943. They were only a few pages of typewritten text but filled with news and events at the Collins Plant. It's main audience was Collins employees on Military Leave of Absence and served to keep them connected with hometown and Collins. The front page stated "Published Every Now and Then for Collins Men and Women in the Service". The United States had been at war for 18 months and work at the Collins factory was at a feverish pace. Big changes in the work force were underway as women moved into jobs previously held only by men. As expected, very little could be written about specific details of design and development or production output. These early Collins Columns contained a lot of "gossip", "Who's Where", Sports, Jokes, and Cartoons. Beginning with the July 1943 issue, the Collins Column is noticeably matured along with a much increased audience. Color is used for the first time on slick magazine quality paper in the March 1945 issue. Black and White photographs appear in the December 1943 issue and finally on the front cover in March 1945. The Collins Column abruptly ceased publication after the April 1947 issue - perhaps due to financial pressures as the company re-grouped following the end of WWII. Collins Radio actually operated at a loss in fiscal years 1947 and 1948. |
 issue collection |
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One small mystery surrounds the publishing of the Collins Column. Up until December 1946, the issues were sequentially numbered 1 through 45. But then the January 1947 issue is labeled "Vol. III, No. 1" with no hint of what happened to Vol. I and II. The Collins Column resumed publication again in August 1950 under the byline "Published on the first Friday of every month by Industrial Relations Division for employees of Collins Radio Co." This issue was entitled "WE" and labeled Vol. I, No.1. The name "WE" did not fare well and all subsequent issues reverted back to the name "Collins Column". The format was smaller - only 5 x 7.5 inches. Publication continued on a regular monthly basis until the last issue on Dec. 1957. The Collins Column magazines on this web site were scanned, formatted, processed, and posted to the web site by a group of Collins Aerospace Retiree Volunteers in support of the Collins Aerospace Museum. The volunteers have created a searchable data base of every name that appears in all issues of the Collins Column - over 42,000 entries. You need only enter a first or last name (or both) and the data base will list all issues and page numbers where that name appears. |
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• Search our collection of Collins Column issues dating from the first issue in May 1943 to December 1957. • If matches are found, a list of Collins Column issues and page numbers will be presented for review (with a link to the page). • Note: Sometimes there are a lot of names on a page, so look closely to find your party. …and, a person's name may appear more than once on a page. • If you are searching for First and Last (Full Names), you may limit the results. Example: There are NO bill barkleys - but lots of william barkleys. • Or …go to our Issue Collection Page to read an entire copy of Collins Column |
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| The volunteers are currently working on supplying a searchable index for equipment type numbers and significant events. The following table lists a few of these historical events. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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