Oral-History:Joyce Bedi
About Joyce Bedi
Since 2023, Joyce Bedi is Senior Historian Emerita, at the Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History. She earned a B.A. in history from Northeastern University, in 1977; an M.A. in public history and material culture from James Cook University, in 1982; and completed course work for a doctorate in history in the Hagley Program at the University of Delaware in the early 1990s. After leaving graduate school, she held a number of positions at the Lemelson Center for almost thirty years, including Senior Historian, 1995-2003; and Series Co-Editor and then Lead Series Editor, Lemelson Center Studies, MIT Press. She specialized in the history of technology, invention and photography and has developed scholarly programs and exhibitions and authored publications and exhibitions on a range of topics in the history of invention. In particular, with Arthur P. Molella, she co-edited Inventing for the Environment (MIT Press, 2003), and while on the staff of the IEEE History Center, with Ronald Kline and Craig Semsel, she published Sources in Electrical History: Archives and Manuscript Collections in U.S. Repositories (1989).
Before joining the Lemelson Center, Bedi’s research and curatorial career included positions at the MIT Museum, the Thomas A. Edison Papers based at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, the IEEE History Center, and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.
In this oral history, Bedi discusses her education and career, especially her employment, during the 1980s, as Curator and later, Acting Directory (two years) of the IEEE History Center (at that time it was the Center for the History of Electrical Engineering).
About the Interview
JOYCE BEDI: An Interview Conducted by Sheldon Hochheiser, IEEE History Center, 15 April 2011
Interview #565 for the IEEE History Center, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Copyright Statement
This manuscript is being made available for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the IEEE History Center. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of IEEE History Center.
Request for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the IEEE History Center Oral History Program, IEEE History Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA or ieee-history@ieee.org. It should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user.
It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows:
Joyce Bedi, an oral history conducted in 2011 by Sheldon Hochheiser, IEEE History Center, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
Interview
INTERVIEWEE: Joyce Bedi
INTERVIEWER: Sheldon Hochheiser
DATE: 15 April 2011
PLACE: Washington, D.C.
Early life, education, MIT Museum
Hochheiser:
This is Sheldon Hochheiser of the IEEE History Center. It is the 15th of April 2011. I am here at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian with Joyce Bedi. What is your title?
Bedi:
Senior historian at the Lemelson Center.
Hochheiser:
Senior historian at the Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian. Good afternoon.
Bedi:
Hi, Sheldon. It is good to see you.
Hochheiser:
Could we start with a little background?
Bedi:
Okay.
Hochheiser:
Where were you born and raised?
Bedi:
I was born in South Bound Brook--well, I was born in Middlesex Hospital in New Brunswick, but I grew up in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.
Hochheiser:
What did your parents do?
Bedi:
My mom was a bookkeeper, and my dad was a welder and a sheet metal worker.
Hochheiser:
When did you first get interested in history? Was it while you were growing up?
Bedi:
Yes, it was. I remember always liking history and doing well in history in elementary school. When I was in high school, my family visited a number of living history places, like Plimouth Plantation, and I fell in love with that. I thought that was really interesting, so that is why when it came time to go to college, I knew I wanted to do history. I was not quite sure what I wanted to do with it, but I had a feeling it was going to be more on the public history side than the academic history side.
Hochheiser:
What led you to choose Northeastern [University] for college, rather than going somewhere else?
Bedi:
Well, I actually started out somewhere else.
I did my freshman year at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. This was the early 1970s and Stony Brook had a couple of nicknames, the Berkeley of the East, Stoned Brook. There was a very vibrant drug culture on campus, and that was not something I was particularly interested in. I thought Stony Brook was going to be this beautiful world, wilderness, almost an oasis, but it just turned out to be a lot of postmodern architecture that dripped the rain, and it rains a lot on the north shore of Long Island.
I was not happy, and I knew I needed to go somewhere else. I lived in a co-ed dorm. They were suites that each had six either boys or girls in them. A couple of my suite mates were talking about Northeastern, and they mentioned the cooperative education program.
Hochheiser:
Right, it is something Northeastern is known for.
Bedi:
I thought, "here I am getting a degree in history, pretty sure I don't want to be a teacher. This sounds like a good idea." I applied. I got in. I went up there, and I thought, "This is wonderful." I had a campus bracketed by Symphony Hall on one end and the Museum of Fine Arts on the other. It was a lot better than Stony Brook. I was much happier at Northeastern. The history department at Northeastern was very focused on teaching, and that made a difference.
Hochheiser:
In addition, were you able to find co-op positions connected with history?
Bedi:
Definitely. When I first started, I thought perhaps I wanted to be a research librarian. My first co-op job was at a public library in Arlington, Massachusetts, which is the next town north of Cambridge. working in the library made me realize I liked working in libraries, but not working for libraries.
My next co-op job was at the MIT Museum. I started there in January of 1976, and I stayed until I went back to graduate school in 1980. I was working full time during my co-op quarters and twenty hours a week while I was taking a full load of classes in the other quarters. It became home.
Hochheiser:
What sort of things did you do at the MIT Museum in this period?
Bedi:
I worked in many areas, but my main work was with the photographic collection. That is really when my true love of photography started. I was taking darkroom classes to understand the materials that I was working with. It was just a lot of organization, cataloging, and supplying photographs for people who needed them. I also did audio-visual productions, which in that day meant a slide show.
Hochheiser:
I remember those.
Bedi:
One of the ones that I enjoyed doing the most was when the Charles Stark Draper Chair was announced. They had a big party, and I had to do a retrospective of Charles Stark Draper's life as a slide show. That meant when we got to the party, I needed to sit next to the slide projector because I was going to run this. The first person who came over, intrigued by the slide projector and a twenty-something woman in this crowd of not twenty-something-year-old women, was Harold Edgerton, who wanted to know what I was up to. He sat next to me at dinner. James "Call me Jim" Fisk, who was then, I think, head of AT&T [Bell Laboratories], sat there, and Robert Seamans, [Jr.]. It was an amazing evening and then I got to do the slide show for Doc Draper as well. I had many wonderful experiences at the MIT Museum, and I am still close with people at the museum.
Hochheiser:
That is good. Now, when you graduated, did you head directly into a master’s [degree] program?
Bedi:
No, I graduated in 1977, and I was hired as a full-time staff at the MIT Museum. I worked there until early 1980, when I left for graduate school in Australia.
Hochheiser:
What led you all the way to Australia for graduate school?
Bedi:
A little bit of serendipity and a little bit of pre-planning. I was looking at graduate programs, and I had applied to some wonderful programs at Case [Western Reserve University] and at William and Mary. I was thumbing through the American Association of Museums newsletter and saw this notice, this little, tiny notice, for this program in Australia. It was all research based, and you needed to write a substantial thesis to get your degree. This was what I wanted at that point. the other programs were mostly exam based, maybe an internship. I really wanted to do that research and writing.
Hochheiser:
So, were you looking at public history programs, as opposed to academically oriented programs?
Bedi:
Right, right. I knew I wanted to stay in the museum field. I really enjoyed working in museums, so I started corresponding with the professor who ran this program in material culture. He told me that they only accept five people a year. The more I heard about it, the more it sounded really like what I wanted to do academically. Plus, I had always wanted to live overseas for a while. That had been a goal for a long time. I was twenty-five. I was unattached. If I was going to do it, that was the time. In addition, Australia's exotic, but at least they speak a form of English. I applied, I got in, and the next thing I know, I am packing my bags for Australia.
Hochheiser:
Well, how did you find Australia, in general, and the university in particular?
Bedi:
it was fantastic. It is the best experience of my life. I really enjoyed my time there. because the program was small, there were only five people. Three of us were from overseas. Of the other two foreign students, one was from Sri Lanka, and the other one was from Brunei, so I was learning a lot about different cultures that I had not had any exposure to in my life. I also was learning to think about technology and invention in a very different way, as we studied aboriginal basket making or Indonesian string looms. Having come from MIT and the very high end of technology, this was teaching me that technology is very broad, and it is everywhere. It was a fascinating time. Then for my thesis, I went down to Sydney for six months, did research, and wrote a history of what is now the Powerhouse Museum.
Hochheiser:
So, at this point, you had already decided not only on museum work, but also in history of technology as where you wanted to focus.
Bedi:
MIT had pretty much shoved me over in that direction.
Hochheiser:
Of course, it did not mean you had to stay.
Bedi:
Right. No, I liked it. I really liked it. I had not had exposure to that kind of history. The thing about MIT, especially in the 1970s, when I was there—I hope it is still true now—is that there are impressive people at MIT. However, they do not act pompous or stuck up and they will talk to anybody. If you are curious, that is the main thing you have to be at MIT, all the doors open for you. I was able to interact with people there that I never would have had anywhere else in the world. I just really enjoyed learning about the technologies and the people behind the technologies.
Hochheiser:
Do you recall some of the people you were able to interact with?
Bedi:
Well, Edgerton was probably one of the most influential on me. The museum held an annual holiday gathering and everyone on campus, from custodial staff to the upper echelon of administration, came to this party. Through those connections of talking to people, people like Jay [Julius Adams] Stratton, Jerome Hunsaker, and Charles Stark Draper—I would have to keep thinking for more, but pretty much everyone. The museum, at that point when I first started working there, was not even the MIT Museum. It was the MIT Historical Collections. It had not been in existence for all that long and people were very curious about it. The idea of documenting their own history for all these people who are really looking forward to the future was an interesting balance in collecting materials and putting on exhibits. It was a very exciting time to be there.
Hochheiser:
You had a direction in mind, even within public history, when you went to Australia.
Bedi:
I did. I was not sure what I was going to find in Australia. However, I knew eventually that I would be looking for a job. The MIT experience was very strong. When it came time to think of a thesis topic, actually, my professor helped me come up with this one. In the thesis I did some comparison to other museums in Australia, so I got to travel around a bit, as well, to other museums. It just was a natural fit. the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, which is now the Powerhouse Museum, was an absolutely fascinating place. Like the Deutsches Museum, and the Kensington and the Science Museum in London, it grows out of an international exhibition. In fact, it tries to model itself on places like the Smithsonian, the Science Museum, and the Deutsches Museum. It was a very interesting project.
Hochheiser:
Then you finished your master’s [degree]. I assume, as a public history program, this was a master's program.
Bedi:
Yes.
Hochheiser:
Then what?
Bedi:
I was finishing my master’s and knew I was going to have to come back to the States. I really did not want to, but I was not finding a job there. I was looking everywhere and found the SHOT [Society for the History of Technology] Newsletter on my professor's desk—he was off on sabbatical—and looked through it. I saw the notice for the [Thomas A.] Edison Paper's graduate summer interns or whatever they called it. I cannot remember what the program was actually called. I shot off a letter. Next thing I know, I have a return letter from Lenny [Leonard] Reich saying, "Great. Come." I finished my time in Australia. I flew back on a Friday and Monday, I went to West Orange [Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey] for the first time. I was in the country about forty-eight hours when I started.
Edison Papers
Hochheiser:
Of course, in going back to New Jersey, you were not going to an unknown place.
Bedi:
Right, right.
Hochheiser:
Was this job through the site or the Edison Papers?
Bedi:
It was through the Edison Papers, but I worked at the site.
Hochheiser:
I know because the Edison Papers are at the site, but so—
Bedi:
Well, they had space on the Rutgers University campus [in New Brunswick, New Jersey] already; so many people were down there in Rutgers.
Hochheiser:
I know that for many years there was also an office in West Orange. In any case, if you actually needed the papers [the archival collections at the Edison National Historical Park], that is where they were.
Bedi:
Right, yes, the physical location.
Hochheiser:
Okay. You get there, and what does Lenny start you working on?
Bedi:
It turned out Lenny did not really have much to do with what I worked on. It also turned out that Lenny hired me because, as you probably know, he is a mad, keen sailor, and he wanted to know what sailing in Queensland was like. I was asked many questions about that. I should not say I had taken up sailing. I had taken up with a sailor, went sailing a lot, and really enjoyed it. Lenny and I had some very good conversations about sailing in Queensland, but since I was based at the site [Thomas Edison National Historical Park], Paul Israel was one of my supervisors. However, my real supervisor was Ed [Edward J.] Pershey, [a National Park Service employee and Supervisory Museum Curator at the Edison National Historical Park]. He decided what needed to be done by interns at the Edison site.
Hochheiser:
This was just a summer position.
Bedi:
It started out as a summer position. The first thing I did, I remember, there was this bank of file cabinets called the Historical Reference File, which needed some sort of order out of chaos put in place. I worked on that, but because of my interest in photography, Ed was keen to have me do something with the photo collection because it was inaccessible at that point. I started working with that.
My internship was extended to the end of that year. This would have been 1982. I came in June, and I was extended. Reese [Jenkins] extended me because, obviously, Reese and I bonded on the topic of photography as well. I was extended to the end of 1982 working on that project.
Hochheiser:
It is the end of 1982, and now—?
Bedi:
It is the end of 1982, and once again, I am going to find myself without a job.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
That is when some of the serendipity of our field, the knowing everybody there is to know comes in. Robert Friedel was already Director at the History Center and he had hired Bob [Robert H.] Casey.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
Bob was not able to come to New York until the end of January, and Robert, I think, needed to be away. I do not remember the exact details. He wanted somebody to fill in that little space between when Nancy Perlman left, and Bob Casey arrived. Toby Appel, who was Robert's wife at the time, knew this and suggested that I call Robert.
Hochheiser:
Toby was working at the Edison Papers.
Bedi:
She was at the Edison Papers, but in New Brunswick.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Hire at IEEE
Bedi:
Yes, she mentioned this to me and suggested that I give Robert a call. I talked to him, and I went to the IEEE, supposedly, for three weeks, and stayed for nearly eight years.
Hochheiser:
What was your initial assignment to do in three weeks, keep the chair warm in case anyone calls?
Bedi:
Pretty much answer the phone. I do not remember having anything very specific to do at that point, except I do remember that in talking with Robert very quickly, it became clear that I had this interest in visual media, photography. I had good connections with people who had big collections of photography. he had a centennial to plan, and I remember it being quickly evident that there was something I could offer the IEEE History Center at that point, so my time was extended. However, Ed Pershey also got some money to bring me back to the Edison site for about six months to finish the work I had started organizing the photo collection.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
I organized it and came up with a numbering system, which they are still using, which makes me very, very pleased. It was a fabulous, fabulous project. One of the highlights of my career was organizing that collection. It was just wonderful. For a while, I was splitting my time between the IEEE [in New York City] and [the Edison site in] West Orange. After that project wrapped up, I was full time at the IEEE.
Hochheiser:
What, about the middle of 1983?
Bedi:
Something like that. I am sorry I cannot remember the exact dates. It was from around June to December of 1983. I would have to double check.
Hochheiser:
That is okay. Among other things, as you probably know, exact dates are what oral history is not really good at.
Bedi:
That is why we write it down on things like resumes.
Hochheiser:
And, that's why we have a transcript, so you can go back and—
Bedi:
Correct it.
Hochheiser:
During the initial three weeks, it was not clear what you are doing and then Robert comes back, and you are extended. I assume at this point, there are some clear things that you are going to be involved with or were involved with at the History Center.
Bedi:
He already had this idea for the centennial exhibit, which obviously, was going to need many images. It is difficult to remember back to 1983. Yes, the idea of doing a slide show, and we did a timeline poster.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
There were many things on the visual side, plus the newsletter. He had help with the newsletter with Bob and me as well. I remember the three of us worked closely on all of those things. I was responsible for finding the images, as I remember. Of course, Robert knew a lot about what the Smithsonian had, as well.
IEEE Centennial
Hochheiser:
Right. You just mentioned several substantial projects. Can you talk a bit more about them? the first is the centennial exhibit. When you arrived was that already under way?
Bedi:
The thought of it was underway. I do not know how much actual work had been done. That I do not remember. Robert had this idea of doing the poster exhibit by the time I got there. I am pretty sure of that. I do not remember whether the actual outline was completed. I just do not.
Hochheiser:
What did you do in the development of that exhibit, which I think was “A Century of Electricals”?
Bedi:
Right, “A Century of Electricals.” From what I remember, Robert, Bob, and I really worked as a team on that. Sure, Robert was the lead writer, but I remember us all pitching in with the writing and editing each other’s stuff and thinking about what images should go in. I remember it being very collaborative and a lot of fun to work on. there was so much that could have gone into that exhibit. Editing yourself is always the hardest part, right?
Hochheiser:
Yes, was this the first exhibit work that you did?
Bedi:
No.
Hochheiser:
Had you been involved in exhibits, as well, at MIT?
Bedi:
Yes, and I had even done a small exhibit at my university in Australia as well. So, no, it was not the first.
Hochheiser:
Was the idea of a poster exhibit something new?
Bedi:
To me that was, yes. I had never seen that. There were a number of traveling exhibits that were flat, but something that was printed, rolled, put in a box, and shipped wherever, that was new to me.
Hochheiser:
Yes, that was one of the first examples I knew of that sort of exhibit.
Bedi:
Yes, it was a really good idea of a way to get it out. Again, thinking about this idea of an international organization celebrating its 100th birthday, but what do you do for the people who are not anywhere near New York City?
Hochheiser:
Right. This was something that could be sent out. Do you recall the reception the exhibit got?
Bedi:
I remember it being well received. I cannot remember how many copies were sold. That would be a good indication, I guess. I remember people really liking it. Of course, that could just be me wanting to remember. No, it was well received. I do.
Hochheiser:
You mentioned a slide show. We have several copies of the slide show still on the carousels.
Can you tell me how that came about? It is not as clear to me as it is with “A Century of Electricals” why that was done and how it was used. What was the purpose of it?
Bedi:
It was done because many of the local sections, chapters—I am not going to remember what the groups within the IEEE are called anymore. A lot of them were planning their own celebrations of some sort, whether it was a lecture or a dinner or whatever. We were getting requests for information that people could use. We came up—and I do not remember whose idea it was—but we came up with this idea of turning the exhibit into a slide show. I remember searching for the—do you still have the brown plastic fold-over holders that the carousel sat in with a place for the cassette tape? I remember searching for that.
Hochheiser:
Yes, we have a couple of those with the cassette tapes.
Bedi:
The idea was to turn the exhibit script and the images into [a slideshow]. It was maybe a half an hour. I cannot remember how long it went. We had a professional do the narration.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
It went out as a package. People could rent it. Either they could show it with the tape narration, or we provided a script as well, with cues to when to advance the slide, if people wanted to present it in person. It got used quite a bit. I remember having to keep buying those brown plastic fold-over slide tray holders because they were getting beat up from the use. It was just another way of trying to let members of IEEE be part of their own 100th anniversary. The timeline poster was the thing that we did first. Many of the images were reused in both the exhibit and the slide show.
Hochheiser:
Any other centennial activities occur to you?
Bedi:
Then we did the booklet. We received funding from Hewlett-Packard to do the booklet based on the exhibit. It was sent free of charge to high schools around the country. They printed something like 25,000 copies. It was a lot. It was really fun to do. I remember working on that.
Hochheiser:
At at least one of the centennial events, they had a bunch of actors dressed up as famous people in electrical history.
Bedi:
Yes.
Hochheiser:
Do you recall that?
Bedi:
Yes.
Hochheiser:
When I mentioned it to Robert, he said I should ask you.
Bedi:
Robert saw the performance. Maybe it was just so awful that he blocked it out.
Hochheiser:
I think so.
Bedi:
It was pretty awful. I do not remember the person who wrote the script, but I do remember them coming to us for comments. I do not think they took any of them. the line I remember best was at one point the actor portraying [Charles] Steinmetz is talking to the actor portraying Nikola Tesla. He says, "Aber, Niki." I do not know if it had more than one performance at the big centennial banquet in Boston.
Hochheiser:
We have some photographs of this.
Bedi:
Really?
Hochheiser:
They are not the ones we posted on the Web.
Bedi:
It was very silly.
Hochheiser:
One other centennial thing I found in the archives is a centennial history guide put together for sections.
Bedi:
That is right.
Hochheiser:
Do you have any recollections of that project?
Bedi:
Minimal. the one thing I do remember is that since we were a small staff of three, we were trying to do as much as we could with the resources we had.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
I do remember us all being committed to serving the membership because this was supposed to be their party. It was not our party. It was the members' party. We repurposed materials in an interesting—in a very productive way. the history guide, I had forgotten about that.
Hochheiser:
Now the other activity you mentioned in addition to the centennial was the newsletter. Could you tell me about the newsletter and your involvement?
Bedi:
When I got there, the newsletter was already being published.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
Yes, that is what I thought. I was looking back at the ones that you sent to me and noticed that sometime in the early years I got a byline. I must have thought it was important to have my name attached to some things. Again, it was probably all three of us working on it. In the beginning, I seem to remember somebody up in Spectrum was doing the design and layout. Later on, I took that over and started doing all the paste-up work. when desktop publishing came in, I got to put my rubber cement away. It was really nice. Yes, I had X-acto knives, rubber cement, and all that kind of stuff to lay out the newsletter. I enjoyed that. I did enjoy that.
Hochheiser:
Anything else on the centennial year before we move on?
Bedi:
I cannot think of anything.
Hochheiser:
Robert mentioned to me that he spent much of his last year as director down here at the Smithsonian largely for personal reasons. How did that affect things? Your boss is down here, and you and Bob are up in New York.
Bedi:
To be honest, I do not remember. I do not think that had much effect. face it; between Bob, Robert, and me, we were not kids. We have all had professional jobs. We knew what we were supposed to be doing. I am sure we all kept in touch somehow, by phone or something. We did not have email in those days.
I enjoyed working with Bob Casey a lot. He and I got along really well. He is a great guy. I still keep in touch with him.
Hochheiser:
Of course, I know Bob well from SHOT meetings, though I never worked with him.
Bedi:
I do not remember any crises or anything like that because of Robert's being down here and not up there. We were pretty much on a roll by that point, the three of us.
Post-Centennial, IEEE Milestones program, IEEE archives
Hochheiser:
At what point, if any, did any of the three of you start thinking, all right, you have spent an awful lot of time dealing with the centennial. Now it is 1984, and the centennial has gone from planning to happening. Where do you go next?
Bedi:
Well, Bob went to Birmingham, Alabama.
Hochheiser:
Well, I know Bob's answer. I have not talked to Bob about it, but I know he went to the Sloss Furnace [Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark].
Bedi:
Yes. I do not really remember what triggered that. I know he was not crazy about being in New York City, but I really do not remember the circumstances. I know nothing horrible that happened. He just got an offer he could not refuse from Sloss, especially with his background at Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore. I do not think Bob wasted a lot of time thinking about what is next, as he was already half out the door. He left sometime in the middle of the year. I do not think he was there to the end of 1984.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
Yes. As far as what we thought we would do, well, we had things like the newsletter that were ongoing, and the Milestones program had started. again, we were thinking, I should not speak for Robert, I was thinking, that what could we do for the membership that would make us important to keep? In the early years of any organization, you are always wondering, "Are we doing enough to justify the expense that's being put out for us?"
Yes, Milestones started getting going. At that point, that was a big way to involve members in their own history. It was always a goal to make people, wherever they are in the IEEE, appreciate the fact that they have a long and wonderful history to think about, celebrate, study, criticize, and whatever. After the centennial, from what I remember, the biggest pushes were the Milestones program and the newsletter. In addition, 1985 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the laser.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
We did an exhibit and I helped with the research. In fact, one of my best IEEE memories is from that research. I got to go around New York and find people who had lasers and see the things they were doing with them. I ended up at this one place. I do not have any memory of how this started, but it was somebody who had his own company doing laser light shows. I guess we were looking for photographs of laser light shows and things like that to use in the exhibit. I went somewhere in lower Manhattan and this guy did a laser light show just for me. He put me in this pitch-black room, ceilings, walls, everything black, floor black; built this tunnel of green laser light around me; and then put smoke into it so it looked like malachite. It was amazing. I remember coming back and thinking, "Wow." I remember telling Ron [Ronald Kline], "I have a good job." It was so much fun. It was interesting, and yes, working on the laser exhibit was fun, too.
Hochheiser:
You mentioned that one of the things you had done while at the Edison Papers was beginning to make sense and start the numbering scheme for the photograph collection [at the Edison National Historical Park]. Did you get involved with similar work at IEEE?
Bedi:
Sure. When I arrived at IEEE there was a small photo collection, so one of the things I started doing was building that. Many of the images were probably copies from other places, but we were able to use them in our own publications. It is so funny to think about times without websites.
We also were able to bring in some collections from IEEE members. I remember there was this great collection, a scrapbook, about the early days of television and someone who had worked for Baird, I think.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
Those kinds of things were the icing on the cake for me. Yes, I did build up that photo collection from maybe a few hundred images to something substantial. We supplied those images to people who needed them. we did the photo research and reproduction. That is when we started working with Gil [Gilbert] Acevedo, who is a photographer in Manhattan. He worked with me for the images for Paul Israel and Robert's book on the electric light. I photographed the stuff, and Gil made them look good. Yes, I did spend energy building up that photo collection.
Hochheiser:
I thought that you had. Obviously, we still have it and still use it.
Bedi:
Then I seem to remember towards the end of my time a fairly large collection of portraits came in of AIEE/IRE people. I do not remember the details.
We also made copies of nineteenth century electrical engineers whose images were in books in the Engineering Societies Library. I had a really good relationship with Ari Cohen, the ESL librarian. He was always finding things to show me. Some of those images would have been lost if we did not know about them and had not had them photographed.
Hochheiser:
Sure. We still get periodic calls for them. Recently, someone wanted a portrait of a C. O. Mailloux, who was president of the AIEE in 1913-1914. We had two of them.
Bedi:
There you go.
Hochheiser:
Probably from one of those portrait collections.
Bedi:
Yes, I just have a distant memory of that. I wish I could remember more detail.
Hochheiser:
You got photo requests from people outside IEEE?
Bedi:
People were not quite as squirrelly about copyright in those days, I guess. I do remember making sure that when we reproduced an image, we said where it came from. we always got that kind of permission from people. Some things, we were allowed to disseminate and some things we were not.
Hochheiser:
Did you have much involvement with the IEEE archives?
Bedi:
Yes, because they were in the room right next to me. The photo collection was in there. Nancy Perlman had done a basic inventory sort of them before she left. Part of Bob Casey's job was going to be more work with the archives, but then he left. Since I had not trained as an archivist, I found Nancy's system problematic, and it was difficult to find things because I did not think like an archivist. Slowly over the years, I tried figuring out what was in that collection and created a rudimentary finding aid. I probably did some reorganization, which I am sure real archivists would not have approved. Again, because of the centennial, we needed to know what we had, and what we could use. There were some treasures in there and there were some very odd things in there as well.
Yes, I did work with the collections, but not full time with the archival materials. I am the one who moved them over to Piscataway. I do not know where they are now.
Hochheiser:
Piscataway.
Bedi:
They are still in Piscataway?
Hochheiser:
Yes, among my multiple hats, I am in charge of the archives.
Bedi:
I do remember that part of what we were doing was deciding what should be in the archives. We decided that it should really be the archives of the IEEE and its predecessor societies and not personal papers and things like that. I know Ron [Ronald Kline] was very instrumental in a couple of collections going to proper repositories.
Hochheiser:
Right. you mentioned Bob left and went to--
Bedi:
Sloss Furnaces, yes.
Hochheiser:
I gather he was not replaced.
Bedi:
No, he was not.
Hochheiser:
Did that cause problems in terms of the workload or did it dovetail nicely with the end of the centennial projects? Good work. You have a staff of three. Suddenly you have a staff of two.
Bedi:
Well, he was not replaced in the sense that someone with his experience and education came in. We did have research assistants, who were full-time, come in. I can't remember who the first one after Bob was, but—
Hochheiser:
They show up in the newsletter.
Bedi:
That is right, yes.
Hochheiser:
Do not worry that you cannot remember.
Bedi:
Okay.
Hochheiser:
If, for some reason, we needed to know their names, their names are knowable.
Bedi:
I am quite proud of one thing; many of them were Northeastern University co-op students. I felt that I had gotten such a good start in my career because of that program, so I got in touch with my former advisor, the co-op advisor at Northeastern, and started bringing students in. Craig Semsel was one of them, and as you know, he has gone on to do wonderful things. He was pretty much a permanent staff member. he was coming back for co-op periods, and even after he graduated, he was still coming. I am not sure. Craig was a wonderful help.
Ron Kline, Wheeler Gift, Newsletter
Hochheiser:
what are your recollections of Robert's leaving and going to the University of Maryland?
Bedi:
Well, I seem to remember that we knew this was coming. It was not a shock. He had been down here. We knew it was a transition period. it was what he wanted to do. we were disappointed that he was leaving, of course. Nevertheless, it made sense. He was going to be doing what he wanted to do. Then we got Ron [Ronald Kline] and that was wonderful. I tell Ron every time I see him that he is the best boss I ever had, I really admire Ron a lot. Of course, I probably should not say that on tape.
Hochheiser:
Well, there are two things. One, it is always better to say really nice things about somebody than really terrible things. Secondly, you get to edit the transcript before it goes anywhere.
Bedi:
I just do not want anybody else to feel bad; however, I am sure everyone I am talking about has heard me say it to Ron. He was a wonderful person to work with. He truly was. we were a good team. Ron respected what I did, I respected what he did, and we complemented each other very, very well. It was really productive.
Hochheiser:
Were you consulted at all when Ron was hired? Did you just know when he showed up or something between?
Bedi:
I do not remember. I already knew who Ron was. I honestly do not remember.
Hochheiser:
In what ways, if any, did the center change, once Ron became the director?
Bedi:
Well, some things changed regardless because the centennial was over. Since the centennial was over, it gave us time to start to balance out the more public outreach stuff with the more academic stuff, and that was good. I liked getting that balance. Of course, Ron Kline, being such an excellent scholar, was the perfect person to lead us in that direction at that point.
Hochheiser:
After 1984, were more things in the way of scholarly programs undertaken?
Bedi:
I do not know if I would say scholarly programs or rather—and I am probably forgetting things that we did—but a more scholarly approach to the things we were doing. the research that went into Milestones, the sections or whoever proposed it did theirs, but we had to back that up and verify everything.
We did the survey of the Wheeler gift, which was such an important thing to do. I am so glad that it finally found a home because the books in that collection were something. Yes, it was just more of a balanced approach between scholarship and outreach because we did not have the pressure of doing all that outreach. We could balance things out some more.
Hochheiser:
Now can you tell me a little bit more about the survey of the Wheeler gift?
Bedi:
Well, we had a summer intern, Tom Lindblom, who we found through Bernie Carlson [W. Bernard Carlson], Somehow, Bernie knew him. Tom was really good, and he physically went through the library finding this stuff. As you know, there is a two-volume catalog of the gift.
Hochheiser:
The original catalog from the nineteenth century.
Bedi:
Right. He went through it, found items, and made notes about the condition of materials and notes about things that he could not find, as well. We took his research and wrote a paper about it that was published in some journal called “Alternative Careers in Science and Technology” or something like that, or it was Science and Technology Libraries. If we had not done that, I do not know what would have happened when the ESL [Engineering Societies Library] closed down. Because we had that research that said, "Yes, this stuff is still around. We know where it is. We know what kind of shape it is. And we know what's missing." I think that was helpful in finding a home for it. I hope it was helpful in finding a home for it.
Hochheiser:
Did you have much contact with the history of physics people, who were just down the street?
Bedi:
Oh, yes. I had not been at IEEE very long before I went to over to AIP [American Institute of Physics] and met Joan [Warnow-Blewett] and Spencer [Weart]. We really turned to them a lot, especially Joan. She had close connections with Helen Samuels, who I had known from MIT. Samuels was hired when I was still working at the museum. Again, we have these little networks of people. Yes, we looked to the AIP center a lot for guidance and as a model because they just did everything so well. I remember Ron and me taking a trip down to Philadelphia, meeting Arnold Thackray and talking about what they were doing at the center. they were not called the Beckman Center yet. I cannot remember their name.
Hochheiser:
I do not remember what its name was either. I was down there in Philadelphia.
Bedi:
That is right, you were there. Yes, AIP was definitely a model for us.
Hochheiser:
Can you be more specific about the ways in which they were able to serve as a model?
Bedi:
They helped us develop our collecting plan, if you want to call it a collecting plan. They taught us about this idea of being an archives of last resort, meaning it is not our job to take in all these papers. Rather, it is our job to help find a good home for them. This is something that has recurred through my career as a guiding principle.
AIP also had a great newsletter. we modeled our newsletter on theirs.
They were interested in research and oral history. Since they had been doing it so much longer than we had, it was easy to ask them, "Are we going to get ourselves in trouble going in this direction? which is a better way to go?" I would not say that we were knocking on their door every week asking questions. However, we had a very friendly relationship with both Spencer and Joan, and when we needed advice, they were there and just warm, friendly people to know and two blocks away. It was very helpful.
Do you know if they have the dogs out in College Park? They had two huge black statue dogs. I remember them being about as tall as I am in New York.
Hochheiser:
I do not recall seeing them. I have been out to their digs in College Park at least a couple of times and I do not recall seeing them.
Bedi:
[Interposing] I often wonder what happened to those dogs. They were a little scary.
Hochheiser:
Can you give me an example of how you worked closely with Ron?
Bedi:
Well, I guess the Milestones program is a good example because it was while Ron was there that we developed the manual to guide sections in nominating Milestones. There were some that he was more interested in and some that I was more interested in, so I went to some of the ceremonies, and he went to some of the ceremonies. We probably both worked on publicity, research, writing stuff for the newsletter, that kind of thing. I do not remember one person doing the Milestones program.
Hochheiser:
Pretty much sharing—
Bedi:
Sharing it, yes, that is what I remember.
Hochheiser:
We have some lovely pictures of Ron at the Westinghouse atom smasher.
Bedi:
The atom smasher, yes.
Hochheiser:
Maybe no one sent photographs, but I did not come across any photographs of you at a Milestone.
Bedi:
I went to the historic Speedwell one in Morristown, [New Jersey]. I remember that. I also went to the transistor one in Allentown, [Pennsylvania]. That was really something because they still had a clean room going in that facility. I learned a lot about transistor manufacture there. I probably went to some others. those two stick out in my mind. Yes, I do remember Ron going to the atom smasher.
Exhibits, "Sources in Electrical History"
Hochheiser:
I know that because I found a box of slides that were taken at the Milestone dedication, including a picture of Ron at the podium giving a talk.
I know you also worked on the Edison after the electric light exhibit jointly with the folks here at the Smithsonian.
Bedi:
Yes, with Barney [Bernard S. Finn]. It was really Barney and me.
Hochheiser:
Can you tell me something about that exhibit, how it came about?
Bedi:
Yes, there were a couple paths to that exhibit. As a freelancer, I had done a slide show with musical accompaniment for an area in the “Lighting a Revolution exhibit” [at the Smithsonian’s National American History Museum]. It does not exist anymore. It used to be there in what was called Discovery Corner. They had demonstrations, but not all the time. Barney wanted to have something in that space so it would not just be an empty box when they were not doing demonstrations. Then he, or the both of us, I do not remember, came up with this idea of doing a slide show of Edison. I called it “Away from the Limelight” because I thought the nice balance to all of this stuff about inventing the electric light and being the wizard of Menlo Park would be to show some of the more personal photographs that I had gotten to know in my work with the Edison site. Barney knew I already knew that material. Then this company called Electrical Testing Labs [Laboratories], ETL, Edison Testing—I cannot remember. ETL was an offshoot of an Edison company, they were celebrating its 90th anniversary, and they wanted an exhibit for it. They got in touch with Barney. They had found a number of scrapbooks. I have copies of the images of Edison in his later years that Barney gave me. We came up with this idea of Edison after forty, looking at what happens to someone who you might argue peaked well before forty, but after forty has a lot of different demands on his life. That is how we developed the exhibit. I did most of the photo research. Barney probably did most of the writing. we got so much press on that exhibit. It debuted at the Waldorf-Astoria, at the 90th anniversary party for the ETL. I am not remembering what ETL stands for. I know it is Testing Laboratories. They had a dance performance. Chuck Yeager was there. It was the fanciest party I have ever attended. I was living out in New Jersey and the dance troupe only needed their suite at the Waldorf until their performance because they all went home, so I got to stay overnight in a suite in the Waldorf. That and the laser show were probably the two best perks of my IEEE years. It was fun.
Then the exhibit traveled. I have a scrapbook somewhere. The Associated Press wrote an article about the exhibit, and it was picked up across the country. Barney and I were just giggling how wonderful that was because we were trying to make the point that Edison's still trying to be creative; however, his organization has gotten so large, and his fame has gotten so huge that he can't run his lab the way he used to run it. He had a new family, and the new wife is a little more demanding about his time. It is just a different life. we go through phases of life and so do inventors. That is pretty much what we're trying to show with this.
Hochheiser:
It certainly is not the sort of thing that most people would think about, when thinking about inventors.
Bedi:
Right, right. Yes, all the images of him, of Edison opening or blessing a rock or something. there are plaques, ribbon-cuttings, and this, that and the other thing. It takes up time. It takes time. It is all the interviews that people want constantly. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed working with Barney [Finn] on that a lot. It is still on the Web, on the museum's website, and that is nice to see.
Hochheiser:
Another exhibit you worked on was on Elihu Thomson.
Bedi:
Yes. That was fun. That was up in Swampscott, Massachusetts. I do not even remember how that happened.
Hochheiser:
It seemed like that was an exhibit for one site and not a traveling exhibit.
Bedi:
No, no. Right, the town hall or town administration of Swampscott at the time was Elihu Thomson's old home. For some reason, they wanted an exhibit. There must have been some anniversary or something, but I cannot remember the impetus. I do not know how we got started on that project, but I did it, and it was really fun to do. I remember I was using Bernie Carlson's dissertation as my main source and just having to plan an exhibit and pretty much take it to Boston and put it up. It was a small exhibit, a showcase exhibit. I have photos of it, actually, somewhere around here. It was a good experience. I spent a week in Swampscott in, I think, December. Since I had lived in Boston for so many years, it was like being home again. It was up for six months, something like that. I do not think it was up a whole year.
Hochheiser:
Yes, I was just curious because it seems less obvious an IEEE activity, to do this exhibit on this important figure for one specific place rather than something like the Edison…
Bedi:
The town council must have requested it. I just really do not remember. I do not know if there is anything in the papers back at the History Center that has who the contacts were and how we got involved. I do not remember.
Hochheiser:
If there are, I have not found them.
The reference books, “Sources in Electrical History” were another History Center project. I know you're listed as one of the authors.
Bedi:
Yes.
Hochheiser:
Can you tell me about that project?
Bedi:
When I first came to the center that was an on-going project. It has a long history. It started with something that David Hounshell did in the 1970s of identifying collections around the country. There was a kind of a companion booklet about museum artifacts as well that Robert [B.] Belfield, I think was his name, had done.
David's book had I do not know how many collections, maybe a couple hundred or so collections listed in it. Why I do not know. I do not know this part of the history because it was already past when I got there. Robert [Friedel] decided to pick it up and get working on updating it. He had discussions with both Joan Warnow and Helen Samuels about this as well. David Rhees had been a summer intern at the History Center before I got there and had mailed out questionnaires to the repositories, listed in David Hounshell's book, to try to update that record. That is what I remember when I got there. There was a card file and stacks of questionnaires. So, what I worked on with other people in the Center, of course, was looking at all that information, verifying it, getting back to the repositories, and then putting it in, building a database—it was dBase IV I think—of getting all that stuff into a computer.
By this point, we were getting into the computer. I probably got my first Mac in 1988. We had one of the first personal computers in the IEEE because Tom Bartlett, who was the comptroller, knew we were risk takers and were interested in new technology and all that kind of stuff. We had this machine. It was called a Victor 9000. It looked like just the standard old PC outline. However, it ran both MS-DOS and CPM-86 with the big floppy drives, the five and a quarter-inch floppy drives. We named it Norvin after Norvin Green, the first President of the AIEE. I remember that trying to get the information out of Norvin and into the Mac was quite a trial. There was someone there, who I am not remembering who it was, that masterminded that. Then we sent everything into dBase and were finally, for the first time, able to search SAMCREST, which was a survey of our archives and manuscript collections related to electrical science and technology. Then we decided we would publish that. I did that and with my Mac and my PageMaker I was able to print that out and get it published.
We did another one on oral history collections that I was not quite as involved in. I have vague memories of that one. The sources in electrical history, the archives and manuscript one—and it is interesting because we here at the Lemelson Center have done a similar project on invention-related collections. We call it the MIND Database, the Modern Inventors' Documentation program. And a lot of the methodology that we used to create that I borrowed straight from my experience with SAMCREST. It was a good, solid way to do it.
Hochheiser:
Okay. We have to stop for a minute. You've spoken for an hour. Now you mentioned Tom Bartlett, which leads to another of my questions. How closely, if at all, and who within the other parts of the IEEE staff, did you work with?
Bedi:
Well, we were right down the hall from Tom and Woody [Elwood] Gannett and Eric Herz. We had a lot of dealings with Don Christiansen and IEEE Spectrum as well. Reed Crone was a really lovely man. Then there was—I can see him in front of me, and I cannot remember his name. He was connected with publications. If I heard his name, I would know it. I can see his face, but I cannot remember his name.
Then, of course, coming down a notch to the worker bee level, I had good relationships with a lot of people in different departments. There were people, Joan Izzo in the Public Relations Department; Pat, started with an M—I can't remember his last name--in the print shop. One thing I liked doing with the newsletter is I did not just help write it and design it, but I also went over to the print shop in Piscataway to make sure it was coming out of the press properly. I got to know the printers over there and see the big offset press. I do not know if that is still there.
Hochheiser:
No, it's not.
Bedi:
That is too bad.
Hochheiser:
I don't know where the journals are printed today, but not at—
Bedi:
Not in Piscataway, yes. Yes, it was an impressive operation. I got to learn. I had worked at a print shop in Australia as a student to get some extra money. I really enjoyed learning about that technology, but it was a very small offset shop. The one in Piscataway was big. Yes, it was big, yes.
Hochheiser:
If we look altogether at the period from 1983 through 1987, in what ways, if any, did your job evolve or change over that four- or five- year period?
Bedi:
One thing I remember about the IEEE, and it's been true of most places I've worked, is that I was not just allowed, but encouraged, to stretch and to take things where I wanted to take them as long as, of course, they made sense for the organization.
I do feel that over my almost eight years at the IEEE, I went from being pretty focused on photography to opening up to the whole range of electrical history and being able to do more research, which obviously was something that I enjoyed. I also learned a lot more about the museum profession, which is a kind of a funny thing to say, since I was not really working in a museum. I had this archives and I had a small artifact collection. I do not know if you still have the memorabilia collection.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
I forgot about this. We had received gifts. The IEEE received gifts during the centennial, so I had this kind of eclectic mass of materials. I learned a lot about conservation, what different environments you need for metal and for paper and that kind of thing. And, because of my work at the Edison site, I had gotten very interested in photographic conservation as well and for a few years was active in the photography section of the American Institute of Conservation.
I was always encouraged to stretch and grow. I never felt, "Well, that's it. There’s nothing more for me to do."
Hochheiser:
Did you do much traveling while working for the IEEE?
Bedi:
How much is much? I remember coming down here for the very first time in 1983 for the microelectronics, I guess it was an exhibit. I know Barney did an oral history project that we have here, that in effect the IEEE Center did it through Barney. There were trips down here for both research, like I did a lot of the research for the exhibit I was working on at the time I left on the history of television down here. I went to a conference on the history of radar in London, in Birmingham, actually. That was pretty interesting because a friend of mine at the Science Museum had an in with all of the big names, so I got to meet Mark [Marcus] Oliphant and things like that. There was one on the history of television. There was one on photography pioneers that I went to. And of course, SHOT; I was going to SHOT. Then there was travel for Milestones. There was enough travel. I did not feel like I had the ball and chain in New York. Of course, I was traveling four hours a day back and forth to my job. That does not count, though.
Hochheiser:
No, that doesn't. Anything else about the years you worked with Ron, before we move on that I forgot to ask you about that.
Bedi:
No, we've hit upon it. I really enjoyed working with Ron. I look forward to every time I get to see him. It always brings a smile.
Hochheiser:
Well, as you probably know, Ron [Kline] and I went to graduate school together.
Bedi:
Right, yes. That is how I met you is through Ron.
Ron Kline departure, becoming Acting Director
Hochheiser:
Yes. What are your recollections about the circumstances of Ron's leaving?
Bedi:
Again, it was just sort of a natural progression. If I remember correctly, didn't Cornell come for him?
Hochheiser:
Yes, the story Ron tells is that he knew some people through his IEEE work in the Electrical Engineering Department at Cornell. They called him to ask if he could recommend anybody for this position they were creating.
Bedi:
He recommended himself?
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
Good for him.
Hochheiser:
That's a story I didn't know until I interviewed Ron as part of this project.
Bedi:
You didn't know that.
Hochheiser:
No. I knew Ron went [to Cornell], but for some reason that piece of the story I had never heard before.
Bedi:
It made sense. Again, it was like when Robert [Friedel] left. These two people really had feet firmly in the academic world and loved that.
Hochheiser:
One thing I found interesting was when Robert left, the IEEE managed to very quickly find a good replacement. Ron was, basically, there and I don't know if there was any gap at all.
Bedi:
There was a small gap, but not a big one, no.
Hochheiser:
But when Ron left, well.
Bedi:
There wasn't supposed to be a big gap.
Hochheiser:
Okay. This is why I'm asking you this.
Bedi:
I don't know if anyone in the other interviews had told you this. And I hope this isn't confidential, but—
Hochheiser:
After twenty-five years?
Bedi:
It is not a bad thing to say, but the job was offered to George Wise from GE.
Hochheiser:
I know George.
Bedi:
I really wanted to see George take that job.
Hochheiser:
He would have been good at it.
Bedi:
He would have been great. Personality and temperament wise, he was a lot like Ron. I had already known George as well. I admired him tremendously. We had great conversations when he came down. He ended up turning down the job because he had small children and putting them into the New York City school system, well, he just could not bring himself to do it. He and his wife just could not do it. I was upset because I really was looking forward to working with him. There was so much I could have learned from him.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
After that, the IEEE just wasn't really sure where to go, what to do, and where the History Center was going. It started a lot of introspection. If somebody like George Weiss turns you down, you start thinking, "Why?" Then he tells you the big reason he turned you down is your location in New York City. This development had something to do with starting the conversation about, "Well, if we're not in the United Engineering Center, where should we be?" That is what I surmise. I do not have any hard evidence of that, but to me, it makes sense because that conversation really starts getting going in that break after George said no. He would have been wonderful.
Hochheiser:
Yes. I agree.
Bedi:
Yes, he is a really nice man.
Hochheiser:
Yes. Perhaps we can continue along this line for a minute. At the start of the conversation about maybe the History Center shouldn't be in the United Engineering building. Can you follow that through from your knowledge of it?
Bedi:
Yes, again, I do not remember specific incidents. I just remember a sort of low-level discussion going on. I remember getting excited about that because I thought the idea of moving to a university was pretty cool, actually.
Hochheiser:
So pretty early then in the discussion of, "If we're not going to be at the United Engineering Center," the answer "well, maybe we should be at a university” came up.
Bedi:
Yes, the idea of Piscataway was probably bounced around. However, I do not really remember that ever taking root seriously because it was not what the IEEE wanted for the History Center. They seemed to be extremely proud of what we had accomplished and of having this professional history center. Burying us in Piscataway would have made sense financially, but maybe that is the only way it would have made sense. I remember conversations about perhaps going to MIT, which was something that I was very excited about. I was like, "Yes." There was talk I seem to remember about Cooper Union, maybe a relationship with them. Robert had been teaching there and so had Ron after Robert left. Ron took over doing that, so there were some good ties at Cooper Union. Eventually, Rutgers came as the dominant part of that conversation for many very good reasons. The Edison Papers was at Rutgers, so that was probably the best reason; just having that good connection with the premier electrical engineer.
Hochheiser:
Yes, and I wonder if the location helped as well. If you were at MIT, you were much farther from New York. If you were at Rutgers, well, not only were you close to New York, you were very close to the IEEE Operations Center in Piscataway.
Bedi:
Right, right. I'm sure that was part of it. I also think a big part it was Barney. He was a very strong member of the History Committee for many, many years, and we had extremely close ties with Barney. If you are in Boston, you are that much further away from the Smithsonian and Barney.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
So, Barney’s location was part of it, too.
Hochheiser:
Once George decided not to accept the position, were you formally named Acting Director, or did it just happen?
Bedi:
Gee, I do not know. I do not remember that at all. I know at one point, my title changed. I do not remember how that changed. I am pretty sure I did not just change it because I would not have done that. I do not remember that. I really do not.
Hochheiser:
The reason I ask is how I came to run the entire AT&T archives. There were two of us running it. I was in charge of research and the other person was the archivist. She retired as part of a very large offer, a big, early retirement package, and my bosses made no plans whatsoever. Nobody told me I was now running the entire archives, but I was the only manager left, the only supervisor left. I kept waiting for someone to tell me, "All right. You're now running the whole show” or ‘We're moving someone else in," but nobody told me anything.
Bedi:
No, I am sure somebody told me. It probably would have been Woody Gannett. I had a really close working relationship with Woody. I do remember during my, as I always refer to it, my off-Broadway acting career, that he kept in close touch to make sure I was doing okay. Really, those years were, in terms of product of the History Center, some of the most productive since the centennial. I pushed many things out the door in those two years.
Hochheiser:
Like what?
Bedi:
Well, that is when Sources in Electrical History was published. We did the bibliography that we had been working on. The newsletter did not miss a beat. You have to remember, at this point, at the most, I have a Northeastern co-op student for three to six months.
Hochheiser:
Right, so gradually, the History Center's staff decreased from three people to two people and then to you and an intern.
Bedi:
Yes. Well, this is where having Craig was just so helpful because he had been with the organization long enough. He was self-motivated, a self-starter, and a smart guy who knew what he was doing. During those years, he really was a big help to me. We also started the Friends of the History Center organization. I actually have some documents that I found which I will give to you. I found my letters to prospective Friends, the solicitation letters. We did not just drop off the face of the earth because there wasn't someone with a Ph.D. sitting in that chair. The History Center remained active, and I am quite proud of that.
Hochheiser:
Especially since the size of the organization shrunk dramatically.
Bedi:
It was stressful. I will say that.
Hochheiser:
Another topic is your interactions with the History Committee. We talked about Barney, who—yes, on the one hand, he has been on the History Committee for all these years.
Bedi:
Right.
Hochheiser:
He's also Barney.
Bedi:
I did not know Barney before. I had not met him. I'd actually never been to Washington, D.C., until I came down for that first microelectronics thing.
Yes, the History Committee was great. Harold Chestnut is the one I remember most fondly. He was so enthusiastic and so respectful of everything we were trying to do and just wanted to know, "What else can I do?" Jim Brittain [James E. Brittain], my goodness, how could I forget Jim? Jim is a sweetheart. There were a lot of people on that committee. That is how I got to know David Hounshell because he was on the History Committee. I did not know him beforehand. So, there were a lot of people who both influenced and were influential in my career that came and went through the History Committee. However, the ones I remember as most strongly supportive of everything the History Center was trying to do were Jim and Harold Chestnut. I actually have a photo for you that I found of a History Committee meeting that was held at the MIT Museum.
Hochheiser:
As long as you've mentioned it, hold it up for the camera.
Bedi:
Is that good?
Hochheiser:
That's good.
Bedi:
I know who most of the people in the picture are, but I do not remember everyone. Whoever took the photo had the time stamp on it, so that helps too. That is definitely at the MIT Museum
Hochheiser:
1988, October 5th. Very good. I'll be happy to take that with me, but I will ask you to caption it.
Bedi:
Sure. I was just going through some old things and found that.
Hochheiser:
Did you attend the History Committee's annual meetings?
Bedi:
Yes, definitely.
Hochheiser:
And was this true when—
Bedi:
All the time, yes, we all went.
Hochheiser:
This one was at MIT. Do you recall if the meetings held in various locations?
Bedi:
No, I think they were mostly held in New York City. I do not remember exactly why this one was in Boston. From what I remember, for the most part, they were held right at the United Engineering Center.
Hochheiser:
In 1988, you took a trip to Australia.
Bedi:
I took one in 1984, 1987, and 1988.
Hochheiser:
Were these trips personal or IEEE business or some combination thereof?
Bedi:
The one in 1988 was business.
Hochheiser:
Right, that's why that one shows up in the records.
Bedi:
Yes, 1984, it was a personal trip and there was a little bit of business in 1987. In fact, the 1987 business was the reason I went back in 1988. When I was there in 1987, I visited the Australian Science Archives project and got to know Rod Home and Gavin McCarthy. Gavin was one of the organizers of the Engineering Heritage Conference in 1988 in Sydney. I was one of the speakers and I talked about the IEEE and our programs as a way of popularizing engineering heritage with a membership organization. I probably still have a copy of that paper somewhere. It was pretty much an overview of what we did. I talked a lot about Milestones, too, because they were interested in that.
Hochheiser:
Any other projects from your period as acting director? You talked about Milestones and the newsletter from this period.
Bedi:
Let me see if I put anything in this stack of paper that helps me. I had started the research for the TV exhibit during this time. I did a poster session at a SHOT meeting about it, but I cannot remember which meeting. That got me down to the Smithsonian and into the Archive Center collections, including the DuMont collections and especially the George Clark Radioana collection. It was probably during this time that I started talking with Errol Davies at the Science Museum [in London] about an exhibit, an international exhibit on the history of radar. Plus, I was always doing these little exhibits at the United Engineering Center.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
I cannot remember if we were on the tenth or the eleventh floor, but when you came up to our floor, there was an elevator lobby with a big showcase at one end of it. I did changing exhibits in the showcase. Then there were a couple places in the main lobby of the United Engineering Center that I did very small, mostly photographic-based exhibits. I did one for lasers and something else. There was no shortage of things to do. As acting director, I tried to keep going all the facets of the History Center's programming to date, so we had stuff going in exhibitions. We did have stuff going in publications. We did have stuff going with outreach, with the Friends, and the Milestones. It wasn't like there were two years where I had one big project to work on. My big project was the History Center.
Hochheiser:
We have a larger staff now and there's certainly always many projects going on at once. That has not changed.
Bedi:
It keeps you from getting bored.
Hochheiser:
Yes, having to juggle a bunch of things. What can you tell me about the process by which a director was finally chosen?
Bedi:
I don't think there was ever—I may be wrong about this, but my memory is that it was more by invitation of the History Committee, especially Barney. From what I remember, Barney was really very critical in this process of inviting people to apply in that way. I do not remember there being a nationwide search per se in the Chronicle of Higher Education or anything like that. I met a number of the candidates. I did not meet all of the candidates. I was not part of the selection committee. I think you probably know that already.
Hochheiser:
I know that, and I, of course, spoke to Barney.
Bedi:
I know Barney felt very strongly that—I never felt that Barney doubted that I was doing a good job, but he felt very strongly that an academic historian with a Ph.D. needed to be at the head of the History Center. Obviously, I did not completely agree with that, as I thought I had been doing a pretty good job. That is his opinion, not my opinion. It has not hurt our friendship all these years.
Hochheiser:
Were you disappointed by the direction that Barney and the History Committee chose?
Bedi:
I was not disappointed that they were speaking to academic Ph.D. historians. There is a very good argument for that. However, I was perhaps disappointed in not being taken seriously as a possibility. You see the job ads that say experience or education. Well, I had a lot of experience at that point. I was running the budget and everything. I was the Director of the History Center for two years, Acting Director of the Center for two years. So yes, I never was approached as a possible candidate and that stung. I am not Mother Theresa.
Hochheiser:
I would've felt the exact same thing, if I were in your shoes.
Bedi:
Thank you, Sheldon. Thank you. I appreciate hearing that.
I was looking forward to having someone else there, someone come in. I was really hoping for someone like Ron, who I could work so collaboratively with and who had similar goals and expectations and whatever. It was a tough time. It was. It was very stressful.
Bill Aspray, leaving IEEE
Hochheiser:
Do you recall what your initial impressions were of Bill [William] Aspray?
Bedi:
I found Bill a little difficult to get to know. He is a very internal person. Ron just walks into the room and starts talking to people, right? I am not that way. I am not good at receptions and things because I am not good at just kind of going up and saying, "Hi, I'm Joyce. How are you?" There was some of that that I was picking up off of Bill, but I thought because he had that experience at the Babbage [Charles Babbage Institute] that it was a natural fit. As I learned more about what the Babbage did, I saw they really were not quite as close to us in programming, goals, and mission as I thought they were in the beginning. It was clear that he was very interested in research and scholarship. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that at all.
Hochheiser:
From that, how then did things change, to bring someone in who's much more, well, as you've described Bill and his interests?
Bedi:
I knew he wanted to build the research program of the History Center. It wasn't quite as clear to me where the outreach part of what we were doing [would go]. I could see very clearly what benefit we were going to become to scholars and that was exciting. That was very exciting. It was a little bit harder to see where the service to the IEEE membership was fitting into this. I understand, he’s new, he's got priorities, and he's got to start somewhere. You cannot do everything at once. However, the IEEE is a membership organization, and we are there at the pleasure of the membership, as long as all the funding is coming from IEEE dues, basically. I was curious about where that was all going to fit in because I knew Bill had a lot of strength in oral history and in the more mathematical side of electrical engineering. He's computers and math and that. I am a Hungarian American, so I was very interested in his work on [John] Von Neumann. At that point, I had been there, and I was the longest-serving staff member of the History Center ever. I was really ready to do something else. Plus, the four hours a day of commuting had gotten old a long time before then.
Hochheiser:
So, was it these things together that led—or are there other factors that led to your decision to leave the center and return to school?
Bedi:
Yes, even before Bill came, I had been looking at different things that I could do. I was thinking perhaps becoming a photo conservator. I was trying to find something that would bring a lot of my loves together.
Hochheiser:
Yes.
Bedi:
I also was offered a position at the Oakland Museum right around the time I was waiting to hear from the University of Delaware and the Hagley Program. I was like, "A school." It was a really tough decision because there would've been a great position out in Oakland.
I decided that I had kind of thrown my lot in with the historians of technology. I was very active in SHOT, especially in the Dibner Award and in the museum special interest group [TEMSIG]. I felt at home in SHOT, so I decided the Hagley Program was the way to go.
Hochheiser:
Where was IEEE in the process of relocating the History Center at the time you left?
Bedi:
This is the irony of it all, because your nice little house on the Rutgers campus is about a ten-minute drive from my familial home where I was living at this time. Yes, the move came right after I left. I had moved the archives to Piscataway before I left. I saw the house and what would have been my office.
Hochheiser:
And you saw what would've been your commute.
Bedi:
Yes, and I'm like, "Why do I do this to myself?" It was just bad timing, I guess. I left at the end of July, so they were just on the verge of moving when I left. My program started in August of 1990.
Hochheiser:
Did Andy Goldstein arrive before you left?
Bedi:
I think so, but I do not think he was there that long. I kind of remember Andy, but I don't have strong memories of him. I remember him being a nice bright, young man, and that is about all I remember. I'm sorry, Andy. He probably does not remember much about me either.
After I knew that I was going to school, I had so many things I needed to wrap up to get out the door that that is really what I remember of the end of my IEEE career is just trying not to leave a mess behind me.
Hochheiser:
How did you find the transition from a bunch of years out in the work world back to being a student?
Bedi:
It was really hard. It was very difficult. I went to Delaware because I knew David Hounshell and respect David tremendously. The idea of studying with David was the reason I passed on the job in Oakland, to be honest. The hardest part was making the transition from having a paycheck to having a $9,000-a-year fellowship and trying to stay alive on that. At this point, I am in my thirties. I am not a kid, so trying to live like a kid that was the hardest part. I enjoyed the work, but I was not convinced at the beginning that I had what it took. However, David convinced me otherwise. He was very supportive and really thought it was great. Many of the people who started the program that year were older students. I was not the oldest student, so that helped, too. We were a good, tight-bonded group. Most of us still keep in touch, yes.
Hochheiser:
Then you left Delaware in 1993?
Bedi:
I finished my coursework and my exams in 1993. I knew I wanted to write my dissertation on Harold Edgerton.
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
I was fortunate enough in getting funded through the Edgerton Foundation to do work on an exhibit that the George Eastman House was working on, a traveling exhibit, and also on a CD-ROM project that was eventually published by MIT Press.
I moved back up [to Massachusetts]. This time, I lived in Salem, which was wonderful. I really love Salem. Some of the old people that I knew from the museum were still there, but there was a new crop, too. It just gave me a chance to make new friends there. I just love the collection. I was there until I got the job here at the Lemelson Center.
Hochheiser:
In general, what you've done since you arrived here is probably outside the scope of the interview.
Bedi:
Okay.
Reflections on IEEE's influence
Hochheiser:
What I would like to ask you is, in what ways did your experiences while at the IEEE inform and influence your subsequent career?
Bedi:
The trajectory is pretty clear. It actually starts earlier with the MIT Museum. I really liked electrical history. I did not know I was going to like it. I got exposed to a lot of it at MIT. Then I kind of took this break in Australia and went off with aboriginal basket weaving, but then came back to the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences for my thesis and ended up at the Edison Papers. As I said, the work with the Edison photograph collection was definitely a highlight of my career.
I already had this joy of electrical history when I went to the IEEE, and being there let me, again, meet pioneers in the field, do public outreach in that field, and do museum work, but not in a museum setting. I had a lot more freedom. There wasn't the same kind of bureaucracy that you'd run into with a museum. I tried to build my own collection of photographs.
The IEEE was a big influence and here I am now at a Lemelson Center that studies invention. This history of technology, history of invention thread kind of starts at MIT and ends where I am now, and the IEEE's right there in the middle of it.
Hochheiser:
You've partially answered this but let me ask it directly. Looking back, how would you characterize your years at the IEEE as a whole?
Bedi:
I suppose it is pretty much like the rest of life. There are some really wonderful things that happened and there are some things you wish had never happened. On the whole, it was a good experience for me. I learned a lot. I gained a lot of confidence in what I could do. I was able to learn how to do new things. It was part of growing up. I do not want to say growing up because I was not quite thirty when I started working at the IEEE. Nothing is 100 percent good, and nothing is 100 percent evil, but I would say there was more good than evil in my IEEE years. It was a good experience. I learned a lot, but when I left, it was time to go and learn something else.
Hochheiser:
Yes. In what ways, if any, did the History Center evolve or change over your years there?
Bedi:
Well, again, I guess it is almost like a child. We started out and I have this feeling that Robert walked in and said, "Okay. What do you want me to do?" Then they said, "Don't you know?" I got that feeling when I first got there that it was still something that was young, vibrant, not completely formed, not completely cooked.
Most of my career, I have worked at places like that. The MIT Museum was very much that way. I was the third hire here [Lemelson Center] after the Director and well, she became Deputy Director. I really like being in on the ground floor of new organizations. I find that very exciting. I definitely had that when I got to the IEEE. You get from that kind of giggly stage of, "I can do anything" to then saying, "Yes, I can. What do I want to do? What is going to have the most impact? What is going to serve the membership the best? What's going to help the profession the most?" Those kinds of questions informed what we did through my time there.
Hochheiser:
I started with questions [index cards] face up. They're face down.
Bedi:
That was a big stack, too.
Hochheiser:
Can you think of anything that you'd like to add or anything I should've asked you that I neglected to ask?
Bedi:
There is one thing I would like to tell you, one very significant way that the IEEE changed my life. Shortly after I got to Delaware in 1990, I remember very clearly, I had just come home from a seminar. My brain was fried. It was probably David's [David A. Hounshell] seminar. I was making dinner and the phone rang. On the other end of the phone was Joe [Joseph] Tatarewicz. He just started asking me all these questions about the collections.
Hochheiser:
This is after Joe had joined the staff.
Bedi:
Right. Basically, Joe was my replacement [at the History Center].
Hochheiser:
Right.
Bedi:
He was asking me all these questions, and I thought, "my God, I don't know. I don't know the answers," because, in part, he was asking me about things that after I left and before he had moved. It's like, "Well, last time I saw that [it] was in New York." He's like, "Well, it's in New Jersey now." I knew who he was. I didn't really know him. Then at the SHOT meeting in 1992, we spotted each other and started talking about the IEEE and kept this kind of professional, I see you here and there, over the years. Well, now we are married.
Hochheiser:
Yes, I know that.
Bedi:
I would say if I had never been at the IEEE and Joe had never been at the IEEE, would we be married right now? Probably not, so the IEEE History Center served as a matchmaker for me. That is one big point in its favor. The best thing the IEEE gave me was Joe. I told him I was going to tell this story. He just rolled his eyes, but I did want to tell you that story.
Hochheiser:
Very good. Anything else or is that just a good note to end on?
Bedi:
That is a good note to end on.
Hochheiser:
Well, thank you very much.
Bedi:
Thank you, Sheldon. It has been fun.
