INFORMATION AGE LEARNING CENTER

100 YEARS OF COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS INNOVATION at a US Department of Interior National Historic Landmark and New Jersey's World War II Living Memorial.

Our current and continuing plan is to implement a series of inter-active hands-on Pavilions/Museums to capture the science & history of the information technology that was developed here at the Army's former Camp Evans, in New Jersey and elsewhere and articulate the InfoAge Vision by telling an integrated historical, technical cohesive story which imparts knowledge to the audience. Some specific programs supporting this goal include our “Spaceflight” lecture series at the ISEC (InfoAge Space Exploration Center), our Vintage Computer Fest, our “Shipwreck Symposium”, our WWII Lecture Series, our outreach programs to local grammar and high schools, and Black History and Womens’ History Programs.

InfoAge continues to expand on its history as the site that opened up space communications via Project Diana in 1946 with three distinct programs centered on space and space exploration:
Space Exploration Week: The “Space Exploration Week” summer program for school age children from first through twelfth grade continues to be a huge success. They studied the Earth, the Solar System, the Galaxy, the Universe, Rocketry, and Outer Space Observation. The culmination of the week long program presented the students with the opportunity to record them bouncing their voices off the moon using our 60 foot TLM 18 radio telescope. The 60 year old TLM-18 was restored to operating condition in 2016 by InfoAge, Princeton University and the Harris Corporation.
Space Exploration Lecture Series: This series was initiated in 2018 to bring in speakers that present the exploration of outer space. Astronauts, astronomers, astrophysicists and others were and will continue to be among the guest speakers. The intent is to engage the interested public - especially college-bound students - on topics that range from studying the universe to walking on distant planets, and beyond. In 2018, the first speaker in the series was Ms. Alice Bowman, the Mission Operations Manager for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. She is the first woman to fill that role at the Applied Physics Laboratory, taking on the position in 2002 specifically for the duration of the three billion-mile space journey. The presenter for 2019 was Ms. Kim Arcand, Visualization and Emerging Technology Lead for NASA's Flagship Chandra X-ray Observatory. Our 2020 program was cancelled due to COVID.
Spaceflight Lecture Series: This series of monthly lectures and discussions at the InfoAge Space Exploration Center (ISEC) are presented by NASA Ambassador Frano
Brien. In 2022 they featured presentations on such subjects as the James Webb Telescope, the Asteroid Psyche, Spacewalks, and DART's Asteroid Redirection.
Also in 2022 over 900 students from 23 schools - grammar schools through Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - and over 450 Lakewood, NJ non-sectarian students conducted class visits to our campus where docents introduced them to the science and technology behind today's modern technologies. Students were introduced to the history of electronic communication and its evolution to the computers, cell phones, etc. that are part of their daily life in this modern age.
In 2018 we formalized our InfoAge Speakers Bureau and we now have over fifty presentations, lectures, and seminars prepared by various individuals at InfoAge that are currently available and have been presented in classrooms and to interested groups. We are now offering Zoom presentations to schools and have already made presentations to Princeton, Yale, RPI, several local high schools and to the NJ School Board Association to be used in their schools. In addition, more schools and scout groups are visiting our campus to learn about a variety of subjects, and we forecast that we will double the number of school visits in 2023.
Our 2022 bi-monthly Lecture Series focuses on history and science and included presentations such as "911 - Calling All Boats", "Edwin Armstrong - Birth of the Electronics Age", "Fort Monmouth History", "WWI - The Hello Girls", and "VE Day". Each presentation was given by a subject matter expert and, in the case of "911 - Calling All Boats", by a New York harbor pilot who was an integral player in the evacuation of lower Manhattan on 911.

CAMP EVANS HISTORY:
Camp Evans is the former site of the Belmar Station of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America built in 1913-14. It is the first and largest intact station of the first world encircling wireless network. At the very dawn of the information age Guglielmo Marconi, the 1909 Nobel Prize winner for Physics, had his American Corporation continue wireless radio development here. At the site in 1914 Edwin Armstrong and David Sarnoff demonstrated Armstrong's “regenerative circuit”, which revolutionized radio reception. During WWI the Navy operated the station under authority of the Radio Act of 1912. The trans-Atlantic Communications officer, A. Hoyt Taylor, dispatched some of the most important messages of WWI to and from Washington and the front in Europe to include the Treaty of Versailles.

THE ARMY AT CAMP EVANS:
In 1941 just prior to the outbreak of World War II the U.S. Army Signal Corps did radar unit fabrication and development here to include the "Pearl Harbor Radar", the SCR-268/270. These units provided America’s first World War II radar defense until more advanced units were developed. At General McArthur’s request Camp Evans engineer’s developed the nation’s first mortar locating radar. Camp Evans served the US Army as the center of vacuum tube development and research. In 1946 Project Diana opened the "Space Age" by reflecting radar signals off the moon; in the 1950's satellite payloads for Vanguard I and II were tested and developed; and also in the 1950’s Signal Corps scientists drove the silicon based transistor industry to commercial viability to meet military radio, radar and satellite power and miniaturization needs. In April 1960 Camp Evans was the ground control center for NASA weather satellite TIROS I as a new era in meteorology began when cloud cover photos showed hurricanes could be seen and tracked from space. In the 1970's and 1980’s much development and testing was done on communication devices to support rapid and flexible all-weather warfare. Thru 1999 devices and advances developed at the Evans Area have been employed by the US Armed Forces in every conflict from WWII to the Persian Gulf War and Bosnia to Southeast Asia.
In 1993, Camp Evans was required to close and transfer its property to the local community as a result of the DOD Base Reuse and Closure (BRAC) Act. Employees were transferred to other sites and the Army spent over $31,000,000 for environmental remediation.
In 2006 Wall was given the distinction of being named New Jersey’s first “Preserve America Community” by first lady Mrs. Laura Bush due to the efforts of InfoAge to save Camp Evans. In 2009 InfoAge was again honored by the White House by the designation “Preserve America Stewards”. InfoAge was one of only eleven organizations in the nation to be so designated that year.
Finally in 2009, the Army transferred the remaining WWII era buildings which were empty shells. They had finished replacing the remaining sewers but, sadly, the Army removed most of the electrical feeds and electrical panels from building to building. This needless action greatly increased our repair costs.
In 2012 the Army transferred the last two buildings from the Marconi era but they were completely gutted and vandalized.

INFOAGE AT CAMP EVANS:
In 1998 InfoAge incorporated as a not-for-profit named the Information Age Learning Center (www.infoage.org) and opened its concept center in one of the Marconi cottages in 2001 with permission of the US Army which still owned the site. The first museum space was opened in 2005 in the Marconi Hotel. Since then InfoAge has expanded its education and historical program offerings and display space at our Camp Evans campus. We currently have over 40,000 square feet of space dedicated to our historical and educational programs. As additional funding becomes available, we will restore, renovate and/or repair an additional 42,000 square feet of this National Historic Landmark and expand our programs accordingly. InfoAge volunteers continue the work of restoration as they raise funds and establish educational science and history programs focusing on STEAM (Science, Technology, Electronics, Art and Math).