I was leafing through the Radio Amateurs Handbook, 1946 edition. That was a very interesting year.
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One curious thing is that the amateur and the professional gear (in the advertising section) were all black wrinkled-finish. The authors even suggest using black wrinkle to make ham gear look professional.A few years later HP changed styles and went flat grey. Woo-hoo.
Then Tek made beautiful scopes with rounded-corner panels of light anodized aluminum with engraved, color-filled graphics.
So someone could do a paper or a lecture on the fashion trends of electronics.
Test gear is going black this season. The Keysight stuff is especially hideous.