Nov 28, 2016 The wary worldview of this group is further shaped by generation X parents, who came of age in the post-Watergate and Vietnam years amidst a time of economic and global uncertainty and who are now.
Pieces of the past have the power to tell a story or evoke a sense of nostalgia. That’s why significant historical objects like vintage posters, space age tech gadgets, and black and white photographs of cultural icons remain popular with contemporary collectors.
Though stamps and coins are among the most common historical collectibles, niche items like antique portraits and advertisements also do well at auction.
Often, collectors interested in history choose to focus on a specific subject or time period when purchasing items. Starting in 1946, the baby boomer generation entered a much different world than that of their parents and grandparents. Below, we examine five of the most significant events that took place during the baby boomer generation and the physical objects that were left behind.
The Civil Rights Movement, 1954 – 1968
Left: Signed photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the set of Meet the Press, 1967. Sold for $11,250 via Bonhams (October 2013); Right: Signed photograph of Rosa Parks. Sold for $125 via Christiana Auction Gallery (October 2016).
Martin Luther King Jr. led the nationwide call for racial equality from Atlanta, Georgia. In April of 1960, King appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press. During the episode, he addressed the legal and moral ramifications of student sit-ins and the federal response to the Civil Rights Movement.
Dubbed “the First Lady of Civil Rights,” Rosa Parks devoted her life to activism in the American South. This is a photograph of Parks after her arrest for violating Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The resulting protest spurred a yearlong bus boycott that forced the city and the Supreme Court to reconsider its segregated transportation laws.
Signed photo of Muhammad Ali and Michael Parkinson, 1974. Sold for £450 via Simon Parr’s Auctions Ltd (February 2016).
In addition to being one of the greatest athletes of all time, boxer Muhammad Ali was a staunch advocate for civil rights and a symbol of pride in the African American community. Ali declared himself a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War after he was drafted, for which he was arrested and banned from boxing for three years. His conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971.
The above photograph is from one of Ali’s iconic interviews with BBC presenter Michael Parkinson. Parkinson interviewed Ali about his career and his devotion to racial equality several times over the course of the 1970s.
The Space Race, 1957 – 1975
Left: Life magazine (July 4, 1969 issue) signed by Neil Armstrong. Sold for $1,100 via Alexander Historical Auctions (June 2010); Right: Three official NASA photographs signed by the astronauts. Sold for £744 via Dreweatts (September 2017).
Antagonism developed after WWII as the United States and Russia wrestled for the title of world superpower. This competition is epitomized by the space race of the 1950s. After the successful launch of Sputnik, a small Russian satellite, the United States mobilized its scientists to match their efforts. In 1969, American astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. and Neil Armstrong became the first men to land on the moon, bringing with them the flag of the United States of America.
The Election of John F. Kennedy, 1960
Left: “Youth for Kennedy” button. Sold for $656.25 via Heritage Auctions (February 2015); Right: “Vote for Kennedy” leaflet. Sold for $750 via Swann Auction Galleries (May 2005).
John Fitzgerald Kennedy ran for the office of President of the United States at the age of 43. During his campaign, Kennedy was confronted with claims that he was too young and inexperienced in foreign affairs to be President. An advocate for civil rights, Kennedy leveraged his charisma to appeal to underrepresented voters and eventually won against his opponent, Richard Nixon. The block-letter pamphlets and red, white, and blue campaign buttons created for Kennedy’s campaign remain iconic.
Beatlemania, 1963
Left: Vintage movie poster for “A Hard Day’s Night.” £450 via Antikbar Original Vintage Posters; Right: Rock-Ola “Yellow Submarine” Jukebox, 2001. Morphy Auctions (January 28).
Key Events That Shaped Each Generation Lyrics
Modern music was irrevocably marked by the contributions of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in the 1960s. With a massive fan base and an unmatched collection of hit songs, the Beatles were revered as jewels of England when they arrived on American soil in 1964. Beatles memorabilia, from vinyl records to lunch boxes, is still collected by fans all over the world.
Woodstock, 1969
Left: Original Woodstock Festival Poster, 1969. Offered via Rock Legends LTD (April 2014); Right: Bruce Fleming, Black and White Photograph of Jimi Hendrix, 1967. Sold for $937 via Heritage Auctions (June 2017).
Woodstock took place over three days in New York in August of 1969. The fair, which was attended by over 400,000 people, featured performances by iconic musicians including Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, and the Grateful Dead. Jimi Hendrix famously played a rock version of the Star Spangled Banner during his Woodstock set. This performance was emblematic of the significance of protest music during the era.
The years 1946 to 1964 define the post-war baby boomer generation, when the United States saw a spike in its birth rate. The American economy flourished and supported larger families, advances in technology made it easier to share ideas and culture, and space exploration took off. But the boomers’ era was also marked by great unrest. Americans born during this period were shaped by a world ravaged by a World War that included unimaginable mass genocide and the atom bomb. The hypocrisy of American freedom and democracy was exposed by African-Americans who stood up against shameful racial injustice and inequality. And just as boomers were coming of age into adulthood, drafts for the Vietnam War began.
This timeline looks at events and people that made the news in each year of the boomer generation.
President Truman proclaims end of World War II (combat ended in 1945 but the hostilities were considered over once war crime trials in 1946 ended)
Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with approximately 20 employees
ENIAC (for “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer”), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania
AT&T announces their first car phones
Benjamin Spock’s influential The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is published
The V-2 rocket launched into space
Kenneth Arnold makes first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington; a downed extraterrestrial spacecraft is reportedly found near Roswell, New Mexico
The first practical electronic transistor is demonstrated
Edwin Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation, makes first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera
The first tape recorder is sold
Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional
The U.S. State Department announces plans to place objects into Earth’s orbit
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the F.B.I., gives actress Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen
President Truman establishes rocket test range at Cape Canaveral, Florida
President Truman increases minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents.
President Truman orders development of the hydrogen bomb in response to detonation of Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb in 1949. He sends U.S. military advisors to Vietnam to aid French forces
The first TV remote control, Zenith Radio’s Lazy Bones, is marketed
The Mattachine Society, the first gay liberation organization, is founded in Los Angeles, California
The Ninth Street Show, featuring notable Abstract Expressionist artists, marks debut of post-war New York City avant-garde, known as the New York School
Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the U.S.
First regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin operation
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to death
The Lever House skyscraper opens in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture
Newspapers report that a fleet of UFOs hovered over Washington, D.C. and were tracked on multiple radar. Fighter planes were scrambled and the Air Force holds a press conference
A mechanical heart is used for first time in a human patient
Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark, becomes the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation
Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the U.S.
68 percent of all television sets in the U.S. are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch the character Lucy (Lucille Ball) give birth
The CIA helps overthrow government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran; CIA Technical Services approves use of the synthetic drug LSD in a MKULTRA subproject (MKULTRA was a covert, illegal CIA human research program investigating mind control)
The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place in Southern California
The U.S. Census indicates 239,000 farmers gave up farming
The first shopping mall opens in Southfield, Michigan
Ground breaking begins on Disneyland in Anaheim, California
President Eisenhower reports detonation of first H-bomb (done in 1952)
President Eisenhower warns against U.S. intervention in Vietnam
The first microbiology laboratory opens
The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in U.S. interstate commerce
The American Civil Liberties Union defends Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem “Howl” against obscenity charges
The Pentagon announces plan to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons
The first electric power generated from atomic energy is sold commercially
Elvis Presley appears on Ed Sullivan Show
Dick Clark appears as host of American Bandstand
Ninety-six U.S. Congressmen sign “Southern Manifesto,” a protest against the 1954 Supreme Court ruling desegregating public education
The first transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation
Videotape is used for the first time on television
The first pre-frontal lobotomy is performed
IBM introduces the first computer disk storage unit, the RAMAC 305
President Eisenhower orders U.S. troops to desegregate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas
Georgia State Senate unanimously approves Sen Butts’ bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites Generate sha512 key pair online free.
New York City is first to legislate a Fair Housing Practices Law against racial or religious discrimination
The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel car
Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S.
The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters
Elvis Presley is drafted into the U.S. Army
President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a stroke
The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit
A 7,600-pound hydrogen bomb is lost in the waters off Savannah, Georgia
A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on a house in South Carolina—but no nuclear fission occurs
The U.S. Army launches the Explorer 3 satellite
CBS Labs announce stereophonic records
Actress Betsy Palmer joins The Today Show
Mao Tse Tung starts the “Great Leap Forward” movement in China
Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union
The Habana Hilton opens in Havana, Cuba
Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba for the Dominican Republic
The Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India
A Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics to vote for Communists
Nikita Khrushchev is denied access to Disneyland
The Barbie Doll debuts and begins domination of the toy market
Allen Ginsberg writes his poem “Lysergic Acid”
Congress passes a bill authorizing food stamps for poor Americans
Pan Am begins regular passenger flights around the world
Soviet Luna 3, the first successful photographic spacecraft, impacts the Moon
NASA announces selection of seven military pilots to become the first U.S. astronauts
The United Nations Committee On Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
Four students stage the first civil rights sit-in at a Woolworth counter in Greensboro, North Carolina
Elvis Presley ends his 2-year stint in the U.S. Army
U.S. announces 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam
U.S. Senate passes the Civil Rights Bill
The Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve in Florida establishes the first protected underwater park
The first guided missile is launched from a nuclear powered submarine
The U.S. Court of Appeals rules that D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterly’s Lover (1928) is not obscene
The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market
Chubby Checker releases his song, “The Twist”
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President of The United States
President Eisenhower delivers farewell address warning against the “military-industrial complex”
President Kennedy accepts “sole responsibility” for The Bay of Pigs invasion and declares national goal to reach the Moon
Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space
Betty and Barney Hill claim they were abducted by aliens in New Hampshire
Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan hitchhikes to New York City
The Supremes are signed by Motown Records
Judy Garland makes a comeback at Carnegie Hall
Barbra Streisand appears on The Jack Paar Show
FCC Chairman Newton Minow criticizes TV as a “vast wasteland”
The Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse’s Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
TWA shows the first in-flight movie
A U.S. commercial plane is hijacked to Cuba
Construction of the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany
Former Nazi sympathizer B. Johannes Vorster, known as John Vorster, becomes South Africa’s Minister of Justice. (He becomes Prime Minister in 1966.)
President John F. Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba, introducing “duck and cover” into the vernacular
Astronaut John Glenn is first American to orbit Earth
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts tour of newly refurbished White House on TV
Vaughn Meader’s “First Family” comedy album goes #1
Marilyn Monroe found dead in her bed
Actress Elizabeth Taylor is condemned by Vatican for “moral vagrancy,” and is wildly cheered by thousands of Catholic extras during the filming of Cleopatra in Rome
The Beach Boys introduce a new musical style with their hit “Surfin”
Folk singers Peter, Paul & Mary release their premier hit “If I Had a Hammer”
No less than five research groups announce the discovery of anti-matter
The drug Thalidomide is banned in The Netherlands
The first Wal-Mart and K-Mart stores open
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee wins the Tony Award for Best Play
Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, relaunching Women’s Movement
Coca-Cola Company debuts Tab, its first diet drink
American Heart Association is first agency to campaign against cigarettes
Los Angeles ends streetcar service after 90 years
Push-button telephones and Instant Replay are introduced
Nuclear submarine USS Thresher sinks 220 miles east of Boston, Massachusetts
Cancellation of Mercury 10 effectively ends U.S. manned space flight
After signing a nuclear test ban treaty, John F. Kennedy proposes a joint U.S.-Soviet voyage to the Moon
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC
President John F. Kennedy promises a Civil Rights Bill
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
Census records U.S. population at 190,000,000
CIA’s Domestic Operations Division is created
Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes in the U.S. Senate 73-27
Dr. Martin Luther King, described by J. Edgar Hoover as “a most notorious liar,” is awarded The Nobel Peace Prize
Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations, while an unknown terrorist fires a mortar shell at the building
Plans are announced to build the New York City World Trade Center
Beatles debut to mass ‘tween “Beatlemania” on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” launching pop “British Invasion” of America
Bob Dylan introduces The Beatles to cannabis for the first time
Twelve young men in New York City publicly burn their draft cards
Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity
China becomes fifth nuclear power
NASA launches its first Orbital Geophysical Observatory (OGO-1)
The World’s Fair opens in Flushing Meadows, Queens, in New York City
U.S. report titled “Smoking & Health” connects smoking to lung cancer
Federal Trade Commission rules health warnings must appear on all cigarette packages
Who and What Was Meaningful to You?
Do you remember these people and events or did your parents or grandparents talk about them? Share your take on Boomer generation timeline events in the comments section, below.
American Masters: The Boomer List premieres nationwide Tuesday, September 23, 9-10:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), telling the story of this influential generation through the lives of 19 iconic boomers—one born each year of the baby boom.
Image credits: Polaroid Land Camera 320, Michele M.F., Creative Commons; 1958 Edsel Citation, Michael Barera, Creative Commons