A minor disaster leads to this post on radio equipment, of all things

I had a long, (and brilliant!) intricately plotted, two-part post all written in my mind but I screwed up the scan of the key photograph this afternoon and didn’t realize it until just now. Rather than give in to despair, though, I will show you something cool. I discovered this cool stuff while I was doing the work for the original post. In fact, the most likely reason I screwed up the scan is that I got distracted by these pictures, which are tangentially related to my intended topic, which I will get back to eventually. Still, I know that I have readers who dig this kind of thing, so what the heck.

One of the most important families in Rice’s early history were the Autry’s.  James L. Autry was the general counsel of the Texas Company and he and his wife, Allie, were prominent supporters of the Institute. Autry House was largely funded by and then named in honor of James Autry when it opened after his death. Autry Court was later named for Mrs. Autry, a very big booster of Rice athletics. Both of their children, James (Jimmie), ’21, and then Allie May, ’25, graduated from Rice. (More on all this later.)

The radio equipment here belonged to Jimmie, who died in 1922 at the age of 23. He had been a zealous radio enthusiast and built what was according to several sources one of the best amateur wireless sets in Texas. He was also the founder of the Houston Radio Club and remained the main force in that group until his death.

I don’t really understand what all this equipment is, of course. Any help is appreciated.

Bonus: While I was looking at these I noticed another envelope called “Planes,” so I took a peek. I can’t see any obvious way to ties these photos to Rice but since things have already kind of gone to hell tonight, I’m just going to put them up. The only label on them was “Ellington Field.” I know it looks bad, but I’m pretty sure no one was hurt as there are pictures of four or five different guys mugging for the camera amidst the wreckage.