The 2008 National Show!  July 4-6, 2008

The 39th national insulator show was held in Portland, Oregon at the Lloyd Center Double Tree Inn.  Show hosts were Steve Watkins and Howard & Linda Banks.  The large show hall contained 125 sales tables and 24 excellent displays.  Attendance was good and there was a good selection of both glass and porcelain insulators for everyone.  The show floor was well lit and had full glass at street level on three sides, so the public walking by had a great view of the glass inside.  

This great show had a wide variety of insulators available including many rare and seldom seen pieces for sale.  There were two key highlights of the show.  The first was the CD display!  Howard & Linda took on the Herculean effort of trying to assemble a joint display of all known North American pintype CDs, both threaded and threadless.  They were successful in getting over 95% of the known CDs on display! The second was the fantastic display of French insulators by Liz and Jim Bergman that took an entire wall of the show hall, and is probably the greatest showing of French insulators ever assembled.  The display included extensive history and research as well as insulators.  There were 22 other excellent displays at the show along with the CD display.

View of the show just as setup starts Thursday afternoon -  The second picture shows some of the activity as good glass first came out on the tables.
Just some examples of insulators that found new homes at the show!

Two great activities were coordinated by the show hosts.  The first was the "Outrageous Jet Boat Cruise in the Heart of the Columbia River Gorge"  This was an all-day event fully attended.  The second was a Thursday lunch cruise on the sternwheeler "Rose" which also included a seminar on the Fluid insulators used in the area.  I only heard very positive feedback from the attendees of both cruises!  A debt of gratitude is owed Howard, Linda & Steve for hosting this great show!

For more details on this great show, check out the links below.

• The National Show

• The Displays

National shows are unlike anything else in the hobby.  It is the one time of year where collectors from across the globe get together and meet.  The 2009 National will be held in Coralville, IA.   Link for information on the next National Show:

Return to the National Insulator show page