I was at The Alabama Department of Archives and History much of the day for a symposium put on as part of the year-long observation of Alabama's Bicentennial. 
     The subjects were grouped by decades, from the 1820's through the 2010's.

 The well-planned day was sold out.
  Presenters had ten minutes each to show off artifacts from the archives collections representing those decades...

...including a futuristic 1959 TV featuring a screen that could sit apart from the guts of the TV (via a rather thick 25-foot long cable, of course). Watch a vintage TV commercial for it here.


     Most of the history was much more serious and significant, from the Civil War to The Civil Rights Movement.

     




ASU professor Bertis English talked about voting after the Civil War, discussing this "Perote Ballot Box"...

... while University of Montevallo History Professor Jim Day talked about the Alabama mining industry, illustrated by this "canary cage" from his own archives (a live-canary would give advance warning to gas buildup in a mine).

You can see many of the artifacts, and more, at The Museum of Alabama inside the archives.