Peter, the last convention was just this summer. While a convention takes planning, we honestly don't know when and where the next one will be. And there are outside forces too, like the threat of an avian flu epidemic, or the caldera under Yellowstone Park blowing up or El Cumbre Viejo shearing off and causing a tsunami that will wipe out much of the east coast; who knows? With Jewish optimism, anything disastrous is possible. The convention will be announced where everyone can read about it because what good would a convention be if people did not know about it? Maybe some of the club members in your area will have a mini wash-in and you will be able to see some of the machines. Speaking of machines, did your family have any appliances that you really liked or disliked while you were growing up?
Do you have the opportunity to go to a large public library? Many large city libraries have back issues of magazines like Ladies' Home Journal, Better Homes & Gardens, American Home & The Saturday Evening Post, either bound by year or available on microfilm from the late 1940s through the 50s and 60s where you can see ads for various machines shown here in the Picture du Jour and old issues of Consumer Reports and Consumers' Research Bulletin have articles like the early ones that you can read here. I was amazed at the heavy Westinghouse advertising in The Saturday Evening Post. I found ads for Westinghouse appliances I had never seen in the other serials, which was lucky, because after I saw the ads for the Westinghouse 40 inch range with the 36 inch wide oven, we found one! Plus, if you like very good short stories, reading old issues of The Saturday Evening Post is like opening a treasure chest. Since the magazines have dates, you get a very good idea of which models were available in what years. I will admit to being one of the oldest members (of this club, not of the human race), but even I would not know about some of the really old or obscure appliances if I had not pored over old magazines at every opportunity for the appliance ads and studied the articles that featured various appliances when they were popular, like ironers in the late 40s thru the early 50s and all of the articles about washer-dryer combinations in the 1950s and very early 60s before sales plummeted. Generally all you have to do is fill out a request in the periodicals department(or on line) after you consult a list, either print, microfiche or in the online catalog that tells you what titles they have and how far back their retrospective issues go.
