Lunch & Learn: Broadcasting from the Beginning

Did you know there were television broadcasts in Maryland during the 1920s? In fact, television pioneer C. Francis Jenkins’s experimental TV station in Wheaton was one of the first in the world to demonstrate television, exactly 100 years ago. Brian Belanger, curator of the National Capital Radio & Television Museum, will introduce Jenkins and describe the technology he used. The talk will also introduce the National Capital Radio & Television Museum, located in Bowie, Maryland.

Brian Belanger is curator and board member of the National Capital Radio & Television Museum. An electrical engineer, he has a bachelor’s degree from Caltech and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Brian his career at GE’s Research and Development Center, and later worked at the Atomic Energy Commission. He joined the staff of the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in 1977, serving as Chief of the Office of Measurement Services, Associate Director of the Center for Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Liaison to the Department of Defense, and Deputy Director of the Advanced Technology Program. Brian has received Bronze and Silver Medals from the Commerce Department and was a Commerce Science and Technology Fellow (1983-84). Brian is one of the founders of the National Capital Radio &Television Museum. As a volunteer he served as its director for a decade, and is currently the museum’s curator, a docent, and the editor of the Museum’s journal Dials and Channels. He received the Museum’s Broadcast History Legend Award in 2019.

To join virtually visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Facebook or Youtube page.

ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.

Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.