Donations to the Radio-Television Museum:

The Radio History Society welcomes donations of appropriate items to the Radio-Television Museum. RHS is an IRS 501(c)(3) organization, so if you itemize deductions on your tax return you can claim a deduction for the fair market value of the donation. As with all charitable donations, it is up to you, the donor, to determine the value of donated items for tax purposes, however, you are welcome to refer to antique radio price guides in our library. IRS recommends that you hire a professional radio appraiser to establish the value of particularly valuable items. Our curator can provide names of such appraisers.

While donated items frequently are added to the Museum's permanent collection, you should understand that RHS will not retain all donated items for our museum collections. When we receive a duplicate of an item we already have, we will keep the best example and de-accession the other. Radios, TVs, or other items in poor condition that would require extensive restoration work to be readied for display will not be kept if we know that we can easily locate similar ones in good condition in private collections that could be loaned to us for display whenever we need them. From time to time the Museum holds auctions of surplus property. Such auctions help to provide operating funds that are essential to the museum's success, so even if your donated item is not retained, you can still be confident that you have helped the museum and that the item will end up in the collection of someone who will enjoy it. While we usually can give you an indication as to whether the item you are considering donating will be kept, we cannot guarantee that any particular item will be kept in perpetuity. RHS' deed of gift form that you will sign states that you give the item with no strings attached. If that is not acceptable to you, then you should not make the donation.

Items We Will Definitely Accept (Check with us regarding other items):

Books and magazines:  Any radio or television related books or magazines prior to 1960--technical books, radio history books, broadcasting items such as early TV Guides, etc.  (We may take some items later than 1960, but please check with librarian.)  We do not want Life Magazines, Popular Mechanics, or other books or magazines not related to radio and television.

• Any radio or separate speaker prior to World War II.
• Any tube radio except for some large radio/phono consoles after WWII.
• Any transistor radio up to 1970 and modern novelty transistor radios.
• Any radio/TV test equipment.
• Any black and white television set prior to 1950 (and a few rare or novelty ones after that--inquire)
• Very early color sets circa mid-1950s.
• Wire recorders and early tape recorders
• Boxes of useable radio parts (check with Curator)
• Tubes, new or used
• Microphones
• Ham equipment
• Records--only IF they are radio related (e.g., transcription disks, sound effects records)
• Pictures, audio tapes, brochures, advertising ephemera, scrapbooks, etc. related to radio and TV performers, stations, and networks.

For additional information please contact the Curator, Brian Belanger, (301) 258-0708 (Rockville). In some cases we may be able to pick up donations at your site.