Menu
Celebrate the story of Arthur A. Collins and and the Collins’ inventions that forever changed communication.
Select a topic to discover or search our digital archive.
Arthur Collins has been described as a genius, a visionary, a fireball casting a brilliancy across the sky. There is no doubt Arthur and his Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company engineered many pioneering technologies that greatly influenced significant moments in our world and in space.
“Your progress will depend on your individual imagination. I urge you to give it free reign.”
Discover the world-changing technologies developed at this small radio communications company headquartered in Iowa.
Explorers in the Richard Byrd expedition regaled Americans with stories of their discoveries at the bottom of the Earth through Collins’ radio equipment.
Be inspired by learning more about The Collins Story with these tools and archives located right here at your fingertips.
Bring Arthur’s story and his world-changing inventions to life for children and classrooms K-12.
Explore a topic and the research materials for your next class project.
Discover the Collins’ legacy of innovation that influences employees’ work today.
Investigate the little known history of Arthur Collins, his Iowa-based company, and its global impact.
The Collins Story comes to life in these award-winning films. Click on the film title to watch and learn more about each documentary.
Donations of money and artifacts support future documentaries, the Collins Museum operations and efforts to promote STEM programming in grades K-12. Gifts are tax deductible.
A.A. Collins was granted patent No. 2,165,226 for the Autotune® mechanism.
On this day, then president, Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, arrive at the Sea of Tranquility – the first humans to land on the moon.
Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida.
A Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7), with Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This suborbital flight lasted 15 minutes, 37 seconds. The spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown.
Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel in space, died at 61.
It’s World War II. The United States government needs rugged, hi-tech radio equipment for U.S. and Allied Forces. It needs lots of it, and fast. One of the companies the U.S. military turns to is Collins Radio, an Iowa company led by a young CEO known for his engineering genius. The small company answers the call to help defend liberty, producing thousands of state-of-the-art radios to provide troops, sailors and airmen with reliable, long-distance communications essential to liberating Europe and the world.
