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The Perham Collection evolved out of the New Almaden Electronics Museum
In the early 1970s, the Perham Collection became the Foothill Electronics Museum
In 2003 the Perham Collection became a part of History San Jose

Learn all about the Charles Herrold water-cooled microphone
Unknown Device in Collection
Poulsen Arc built by Cyril Elwell

CHRS has scanned some of the Perham photos and archives
We will continue to share parts of the collection on this Web

DOUGLAS PERHAM was an early collector of radio devices.

Perham started an electronics shop in Palo Alto in 1902. He worked for Federal Telegraph, Magnavox and other Bay Area companies. In the 1950s he assembled a small museum at his home in the New Almaden area of San Jose.

In the early 1960s, a group of Silicon Valley electronics historians began to raise money to better house Perham's Collection. The Foothill Museum resulted.

The Perham collection includes examples of the first century of the Silicon Valley electronics industry, these inventors and companies:

Ampex, Hewlett-Packard, Varian, Charles Herrold, Lee de Forest, Ralph Heinz, Shockley, Elwell, Dolby, to name a few.
The Perham Library contains many complete collections, like these examples of early radio magazine art

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