The 50th National Show!

June 14-16, 2019

Orlando, FL

Quick Link to the Show

The 50th National insulator show was held in Orlando, Florida at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel. Jacqueline Linscott-Barnes, Clay Bledsoe and Graham Barnes were the hosts for the show along with support from the CFIC. The detailed planning and smooth operation was a testament to the experience of the hosts! A great deal of thought went into ensuring each guest had an enjoyable time. The hotel was a great venue integrating the meetings and banquet with a very reasonable group room cost! Each displayer received an individualized beautiful Lucite award with their name and the show logo. A slightly lower than typical dealer count enabled excellent sales across all insulator price ranges.

Each dealer or exhibitor received a wonderful cloth bag with the 50th logo which included lots of information on things to do and many free items. The show directory was by far the most detailed I have seen at a National Show. It included the following unique items:

List of all NIA charter members (NIA numbers up to 900)
All 50 National show dates, locations and hosts
NIA board members and committee chairs since the NIA started in 1973
All the NIA regional showdates, locations and hosts
Ten stories from early collectors on how they got started
A detailed history on the National Show commemoratives

The Doubletree was a beautiful venue enabling everything at the show to be in one location.

Show hosts Jacqueline Linscott-Barnes, Clay Bledsoe and Graham Barnes

A fantastic show directory filled with NIA history

Each dealer received this nice screen printed cloth bag

The hosts worked with insulator collector and musician Mike Bruner (Keyboards) to provide a free concert for all attendees by the Magic Bus Band. The Magic Bus band is a very talented seven piece band that focuses on the Woodstock music era. Songs ranged from the Monkeys and Neil Young to Steppenwolf and Jefferson Airplane. They played both Friday and Saturday night which was greatly appreciated by all who attended.

Magic Bus Band in concert at the venue

The Saturday night awards banquet had a Hawaiian theme but also included 50th gold decorations. There was a happy hour before the banquet where each guest was greeted with a lei. The food was excellent with choices of pork or chicken and key lime pie for dessert. Each table had a gift centerpiece with a hidden note in one napkin to identify the winner. Attendance was excellent and the insulator display awards as well as the NIA yearly awards were presented.

Solid attendance at the banquet which sported gold decorations and a Hawaiian Luau theme

Displayer award

NIA catagory awards

In addition to the numerous display awards there were several significant NIA awards given out:

Special Show Host Awards:

Caroline Dean received the Lon C. Holy Memorial Award for Outstanding Enthusiasm & Support of the Hobby.

Additional Awards:

The LSIC presented the N.R. Woodward Literary award to Fritz Kettenberg for his Crown Jewels article series "The Collins Line in Russian America"
The Len Linscott Pioneer Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Hobby was presented to Dudley & Sandra Ellis.

One Outstanding Service Award was given:

Bill Rohde (Colusa, CA)

Two Lifetime Memberships (The NIA's highest award) were presented:

Kevin & Tammy Jacobson (Phoenix, AZ)
Lou & DeeDee Hall (Fresno, CA)

Six President's Awards were given:

Carolyn Berry (Round Rock, TX) - 11 years service as Commemorative Coordinator
Lois Blair (London, OH) - Years of service to the hobby supporting the Mid-Ohio show
Daniel Hulsizer (Phoenix, AZ) - Attorney supporting the NIA
Andrew Gibson (Dansville, NY) - NIA Membership Director
Paul Greaves (Granite Bay, CA) - NIA Authentication Committee
Gus Stafford (Mechanicsburg, PA) - NIA Eastern VP and support for hobby in general

One NIA Scholarship was also awarded:

Jacob Wilkerson (Moundsville, WV) - W. Liberty University

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 when collectors from across the globe get together and meet. Note that Lee Brewer again made creative and beautiful "insulator currency" to be given to junior displayers to be spent at the show. This year there were no junior displays, but collectors porchased the bills anyway.

There was a fantastic group display at the show coordinated by Jeff Hogan. Jeff coordinated and set up the display with insulators and early signs from each of the 50 states! This was a tremendous undertaking and was the source of much excitement at the show! It easily won the Peoples Choice Award. Much thanks to Jeff for pulling together this fantastic display!

There was also a fantastic seminar provided after the NIA general meeting on Friday by Jeff Katchko. He used a video presentation combined with actual artifacts to show how he was able to research and hunt a very challenging and early telegraph line. Leveraging research, many visits to the sites and a metal detector he was able to find insulators that had been underground for 150 years! This really shows that there is still a lot of insulators and history remaining out there to be discovered.