Ever wonder where the aluminum ice cube tray came from? When I was a kid in the ’50s and ’60s, my father, Edward H. Roberts, was a design engineer at General Electric… first at Erie Works, then at Appliance Park in Louisville where we moved when I was about 3. Obviously, ice cube trays weren’t…

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The day after they were married in New York, my parents, Phyllis and Ed, flew to Bermuda for their honeymoon. Family archives include a few treasures from this 1946 romantic adventure, and this page is devoted to them… beginning with a 16-minute home movie taken by my dad: Here was their ticket on a Pan…

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They met on the Manitoba during a Lake Superior cruise in August, and were married in November (much to the concern of parents and friends) at the Little Church Around the Corner. Here, Phyllis (in white) was introducing her new beau to her sister Barbara and her husband, Frank (along with kids, Patty and Bruce).…

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8mm film by Edward H. Roberts Digitized by Steven K. Roberts August 8-13, 1946 In August of 1946, a 33-year-old GE engineer named Edward H. Roberts stepped aboard the SS Manitoba for a Lake Superior vacation cruise… using his trusty 8mm movie camera to film scenery, crew, passengers, cargo handling, other ships, and a shore…

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This was my father’s 10-year reunion after graduating from Swarthmore in 1936 as a mechanical engineer, and he captured about a minute and a half of home-movie footage… which I digitized 75 years later: Swarthmore College Reunion 1946 from Steven K Roberts on Vimeo. He has a little cameo at the top of the page,…

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As I digitize the massive film library of my father, Edward H. Roberts, I find lots of glimpses of events from times long past… often wishing I had been able to do this while he was still alive to answer questions. This is one of those. Through the 1940s, he actively raced his Star-class sailboat,…

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Caption to colorized 1946 photo above: Certificate and lapel emblem are awarded to Edward H. Roberts, refrigerator cabinet engineering section, for his contributions to research and development of plastics products for the Navy during the war. The award was made in Pittsfield March 25, by Captain Ralph O. Phillips, Naval Ordnance, Washington, D. C, shown…

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My father traveled extensively, always carrying his 8mm movie camera. I have inherited a mountain of film, and have been gradually digitizing the footage… often sharing it with historical communities. Here are the two short videos from those adventures, combined into a single archive post. The New Orleans trip was in December, 1945… documented with…

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I am not certain of the exact date; these stills were from an 8mm home movie by Edward H. Roberts, and he had written “December 11, 1945” on the box. But the reel also contained a trip to New Orleans, so it may have been referring to that. In any case, he lived in Erie…

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8mm film by Edward H. Roberts Digitized by Steven K. Roberts August 13-19, 1945 My father filmed this journey on the Manitoulin out of Owen Sound during the week of August 13, 1945…. two weeks before the end of World War II. His 8mm movie reel sat in a box for 74 years, then I…

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