On this page I discuss the vintage HP catalogs. My collection has all major HP catalogs except for the very first three. These are treasures of history. I have more short form catalogs from the 1940's and 1950's that I will be listing as well. HP did not publish a catalog for every year so no full catalog was printed for the gaps in years of the catalogs listed below.  Short form catalogs with only the basic information were printed often and fill the gaps.  With the exception of 1971 and 1974, HP published a full-line catalog every year beginning in 1967.  A must vist site is http://www.hparchive.com  where you can download pdf scans of almost all the vintage HP catalogs as well as a lot of other very hard to find HP documents.

These are very old HP catalogs in my collection. The first one on the top left is from 1945. The next one is the1948 catalog followed by a photocopy of the 1950 catalog (I now own an original and will update this picture soon). The next row shows catalogs for 1952, 1955, and 1957. Except for condensed short form catalogs, there were no main catalogs in between these years. It was not until 1967 that HP began publishing a new catalog every year (except for 1971 and 1974).

Here is a close up picture of the HP1945 catalog.

Here is the contents page of the HP1945 catalog.

Description of HP Catalogs:

1943? catalog. According to the 1989 catalog, page 21, the 1943 catalog was the first HP catalog published and described 12 products on 24 pages. You can download a pdf scan of this catalog on Glenn Robb's web site: http://www.hparchive.com .  It has 24 pages and lists the HP200A/B/C/D, the HP205A/AG, the HP400A, the HP300A, the HP320A/B, the HP325B, and the HP210A for a total of 12 products.  A 4-page insert lists the HP100A and HP500A.  It has a hand-written date of 1942/1 on the cover.  I was able to view this catalog while visiting the Agilent History Center and there are two versions that are essentially the same except that one has the 4-page insert discussed above and the apparently older one does not.  I went through the catalog looking for historical clues that would establish for sure its date. I could not find any printed date, copyright date, or a catalog number. The only definite clue is the reference to patent 2,268,872 for the audio oscillator which was issued on Jan. 6, 1942.  A September 1, 1941 HP price list shows the following equipment:  Resistance Tuned Oscillators: HP200A, HP200B, HP200C, HP200D, and HP202D; Audio Signal Generators: HP205A and HP205AG; Harmonic Analyzers: HP300A, HP320A, HP320B, and HP325B; Square Wave Generator: HP210 (this must be the HP210A but the 'A' suffix is not shown); Vacuum Tube Voltmeter: HP400 (this must be the HP400A but the 'A' suffix is not shown); Frequency Measuring Equipment: HP100A, HP100B, and HP500A.  This is a total of sixteen pieces of equipment that existed in 1941.  The products listed on the 1941 price sheet but that are not in the 1943? catalog are the HP100A, HP100B, HP202D, and HP500.   Thus, there is a dilemma.  With the patent reference the catalog must have been printed in 1942 or later but why would the catalog omit four products?  Except for the patent reference a case could be made that the catalog is 1940 or maybe 1941. It is not known if there was an updated catalog between this one and the 1945 listed below. More research is needed.  On the hparchive web site you can view three different September 1, 1941 price lists.  I am begining to think that at least some of these versions were printed after 1941 (note that one of the addresses is of the Redwood building which was not built until 1942) and include products that were not available in 1941.  Thus the history is confused. 

1944? catalogs (17A and 17B).  I was able to view these catalogs while visiting the Agilent History Center.  Both catalogs are practically identical but have some minor differences.  Both catalogs have 32 pages excluding the covers and list 16 products -  200A, 200B, 200C, 200D, 205A, 205AG, 400A, 300S, 320A, 320B, 500A, 325B, 210A, 100A, 100B, 350A.  The 202D is not listed in the index and I do not know if it is in the catalog.  It is interesting to note that if the 202D were included that there would be 17 products -- the catalog number.  On page 32 of the 17A there is a picture of an Army-NAvy "E" Burgee awarded to HP on October 22, 1943 so the this dates the catalog to probably 1944. 

1945/1946 catalog (catalog 18A). This catalog does not have a year on it but has a 1945 copyright date.  The products it lists include several products that were announced in 1946 so I am not sure of the actual year.  My copy includes a separate price sheet for January 1, 1947. The catalog has 32 pages excluding the covers and includes 24 instruments in its main contents section but there are an additional 3 instruments that are closely related to the main products. There are also two accessories - a binding post and a flexible coupler. The price sheet lists three products (HP450A, HP506, and HP610A that are not in the catalog so I presume those products were introduced after 1945).

1948 catalog (catalog 19A). This catalog does not have a year on it but has a 1948 copyright date. This catalog has 40 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 39 including two acessories -- a binding post and a flexible coupler.

1950 catalog (catalog 20A). This catalog has 64 pages excluding the covers and is the first HP catalog to have an actual year printed on the cover. The total number of products listed is 70 including 10 various accessories, cables, adapters, etc.

1952 catalog (catalog 21A). This catalog has 102 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 120 including various accessories, cables, adapters, etc.

1955 catalog (catalog 22A). This catalog has 126 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 141 although the actual number is more as some of these are part of a series (such as waveguide adapters, etc. that have a common base number but different suffixes).

1957 catalog (catalog 23A). This catalog has 148 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 170 although the actual nubmer is more as some of these are part of a serires (such as waveguide adapters, etc. that have a common base number but different suffixes).

1958 short form catalog.  This condensed catalog had 15 pages and introduced a number of new products including the HP721A transistor power supply -- the first transistorized eqiupment HP sold.

1959 catalog (no catalog number). This catalog has 166 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 167 although the actual number is more as some of these are part of a series (such as waveguide adapters, etc. that have a common base number but different suffixes).

1960 catalog (no catalog number).  This catalog has 174 pages excluding the covers.  The total number of products listed is 183 although the actual number is more as some of these are part of a series (such as waveguide adapters, etc. that have a common base number but different suffixes.

1961 catalog (no catalog number). This catalog has 218 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 264 although the actual number is more as some of these are part of a series (such as waveguide adapters, etc. that have a common base number but different suffixes) and also some related model numbers are listed as a range rather than individually.

1963 catalog (catalog 24). This catalog has 266 pages excluding the covers. The total number of products listed is 403 although the actual number is more as some of these are part of a series (such as waveguide adapters, etc. that have a common base number but different suffixes) and also some related model number are listed as a range rather than individually. There are a substantial number of accessories such as adapters, cables, etc.

1965 catalog (catalog 25). This catalog has hard covers rather than soft covers and has 402 pages excluding the covers. This appears to be the last catalog that had a number. Subsequent catalogs were known only by their year. The number of products listed is well over 700 including various accessories.

1966/1967 Index of Electronic Measuring Equipment.  This is a short form catalog and has 50 pages counting the covers.

1967 catalog (catalog numbers seemed to have ended with the 1965 catalog). The best I can tell is that 1967 is the start of catalogs being issued every year except for 1971 and 1974.

****** The list will continue when I have time to tablulate the data ******

There were no 1971 and 1974 catalogs.  I have a 1971 supplement to the 1970 catalog. I have not determined if there was a 1974 supplement to the 1973 catalog.  The last HP catalog was 1999.  Beginning with 2000, the company name became Agilent Technologies. I have the Agilent 2000, 2001, and 2003/2004 catalogs.  There was not a 2002 catalog.

Links to other web pages on this site

http://www.kennethkuhn.com/hpmuseum This link takes you to the main HP Museum page.

http://www.kennethkuhn.com This link takes you to the main page of my personal web site where you can access a variety of information.