| National Museum of American History

This 8" x 10" black and white photograph shows four men with a ComputerLand poster behind them and a continuous feed matrix printer in front of them. James Egan is the man on the right.

Description: This 8" x 10" black and white photograph shows four men with a ComputerLand poster behind them and a continuous feed matrix printer in front of them. James Egan is the man on the right. The other men are likely his three partners, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen.; James Egan, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen of Facks Computer, Inc. were the owners of the first ComputerLand store in Manhattan.; ComputerLand was a nationwide chain of retail computer stores. They opened their first store in 1976 in Hayward, California. By 1990 most stores had closed and in early 1999 the company officially disbanded.; The objects in accession 2017.0321 and non-accession 2017.3153 are related.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2017.3153.04
nonaccession number: 2017.3153
catalog number: 2017.3153.04

This 5" x 7" black and white photograph shows James Egan sitting at a desk with computers and software on it. He has a foot on the desk, a coffee filter on his head, and is pouring a drink into a cup. Next to his chair is a sign that reads: SEND HELP.

Description: This 5" x 7" black and white photograph shows James Egan sitting at a desk with computers and software on it. He has a foot on the desk, a coffee filter on his head, and is pouring a drink into a cup. Next to his chair is a sign that reads: SEND HELP. On the back, written in pencil, are the dates 1981-1982.; James Egan, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen of Facks Computer, Inc. were the owners of the first ComputerLand store in Manhattan.; ComputerLand was a nationwide chain of retail computer stores. They opened their first store in 1976 in Hayward, California. By 1990 most stores had closed and in early 1999 the company officially disbanded.; The objects in accession 2017.0321 and non-accession 2017.3153 are related.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1981-1982

ID Number: 2017.3153.06
nonaccession number: 2017.3153
catalog number: 2017.3153.06

Benjamin Peirce, Harvard professor of mathematics and third superintendent of the U.S.

Description: Benjamin Peirce, Harvard professor of mathematics and third superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, was on good terms with Louis Agassiz, the charismatic Swiss naturalist who taught at Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School and served as the founding director of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Writing to Agassiz in February 1871, Peirce announced that the Coast Survey was about “to send a new iron steamer round to California” and asked if Agassiz would “go in her, and do deep-sea dredging all the way around?” Since Agassiz had conducted several research projects under the aegis of the Coast Survey, Peirce expected that he would accept this new proposition. The new ship, the first iron-hulled vessel owned by the Survey, was designed to dredge at depths never before reached. Named the Hassler after the first superintendent of the Coast Survey, the ship's maiden voyage would be known as the Hassler Expedition.; The Coast Survey had the largest budget of any 19th-century American scientific organization, and employed more scientists, both directly and indirectly. But aware of Congressional concerns about how federal funds should be spent, the Survey tended to hide its science behind its more practical activities. Thus while the Hassler sailed from the East Coast where it was built to the Pacific Coast where it would see service, the ship` could transport Agassiz, his wife, and several colleagues and assistants. But Agassiz had to raise the $20,000 needed to preserve the many specimens they hoped to collect and send back to the States for further study. Most of these specimens went to the Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Smithsonian Institution.; The Hassler left the Boston Navy Yard on Dec. 4, 1871 and made land in San Francisco some nine months later. Despite equipment failure and various delays, much was accomplished on the Expedition. The Coast Survey aimed to discover the origin of the Gulf Stream, determine the greatest depth of the Atlantic, exploring the coasts of Patagonia, chart the dangerous currents in and around the Straits of Magellan, and trace Darwin’s steps in the Galapagos Islands. Agassiz was especially interested in evidence of glacial action in the Southern Hemisphere (which he found), and evidence that might disprove Darwin’s theory of evolution (which he did not).; The Hassler left the Boston Navy Yard on Dec. 4, 1871 and made land in San Francisco some nine months later. Despite equipment failure and various delays, much was accomplished on the expedition. The Coast Survey aimed to discover the origin of the Gulf Stream, determine the greatest depth of the Atlantic, explore the coasts of Patagonia, chart the dangerous currents in and around the Straits of Magellan, and trace Darwin’s steps in the Galapagos Islands. Agassiz was especially interested in evidence of glacial action in the Southern Hemisphere (which he found), and evidence that might disprove Darwin’s theory of evolution (which he did not).; This large, carefully posed and somewhat manipulated photograph was made while plans for the expedition were underway. Agassiz is seated at the left of a round table, Peirce stands behind the table, and Carlile Patterson, the Hydrographic Inspector of the Coast Survey (and the man who had planned the internal arrangements of the new ship) sits at right. These men seem to be discussing a chart attached to which an obviously enlarged piece of paper carries the hand-written inscription “Instructions for Expd.” and “To. Prof. L. Agassiz / from Captain C. Patterson / Yours respectfully / Benjamin Peirce / Superintendent.”; The text at bottom of the photograph reads “Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1871 by A. SONREL, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.” This refers to the federal copyright act of 1870. That image is now in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. It is identical to our copy, but has an “A. Sonrel” signature in the lower left.; Antoine Sonrel (d. 1879) was an accomplished scientific illustrator who had worked with Agassiz in Neuchâtel, followed him to the United States, and prepared the lithographic plates for several of his publications. He was also an accomplished photographer who did commercial and scientific work. Several Agassiz cartes-de-visite photographs were taken by in Sonrel’s Boston studio. Another Sonrel photograph dated 1871, probably taken on the same day as our image, shows Agassiz and Peirce, the former seated in a chair, and the latter standing with his right hand on a globe pointing to Boston. And, as our image indicates, Sonrel, like many photographers then as now, enjoyed manipulating images. Another Sonrel photograph shows Agassiz talking to Agassiz across a table. Yet another shows an unidentified man playing chess with himself.; According to a note on the back of the frame, this photograph was purchased at an auction of the effects Mrs. John Cummings in 1928. The reference is to Mary Phelps Cowles (1839-1927), a woman of culture and wealth who was married to Adino Brackett Hall, a Boston physician, and then John Cummings, a landowner in Woburn, Ma.; Ref: Christoph Irmscher, Louis Agassiz. Creator of American Science (Boston, 2013).; David Dobbs, Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral (New York, 2005).; Edward Hogan, Of the Human Heart. A Biography of Benjamin Peirce (Bethlehem, 2008), pp. 270-280.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1871

depicted (sitter): Agassiz, Louis

ID Number: 1990.0326.01
catalog number: 1990.0326.01
accession number: 1990.0326

This 5" x 7" black and white photograph shows James Egan in front of a software display at the ComputerLand store in NYC. On the back, written in pencil are the dates 1981-82.James Egan, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen of Facks Computer, Inc.

Description: This 5" x 7" black and white photograph shows James Egan in front of a software display at the ComputerLand store in NYC. On the back, written in pencil are the dates 1981-82.; James Egan, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen of Facks Computer, Inc. were the owners of the first ComputerLand store in Manhattan.; ComputerLand was a nationwide chain of retail computer stores. They opened their first store in 1976 in Hayward, California. By 1990 most stores had closed and in early 1999 the company officially disbanded.; The objects in accession 2017.0321 and non-accession 2017.3153 are related.
Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: 2017.3153.05
nonaccession number: 2017.3153
catalog number: 2017.3153.05

These four color Polaroid photographs, taken in 1981, show the interior of the first ComputerLand store to open in Manhattan.

Description: These four color Polaroid photographs, taken in 1981, show the interior of the first ComputerLand store to open in Manhattan. James Egan was one of four owners.; In the first pair of images, Egan is the man in the light brown suit and the man kneeling in front of three people in ViewSonic bird costumes.; The second pair of images are of interior views of the store with customers browsing.; James Egan, Joseph Alfieri, Robert Kurland, and Thomas Vandermeulen of Facks Computer, Inc. were the owners of the first ComputerLand store in Manhattan.; ComputerLand was a nationwide chain of retail computer stores. They opened their first store in 1976 in Hayward, California. By 1990 most stores had closed and in early 1999 the company officially disbanded.; The objects in accession 2017.0321 and non-accession 2017.3153 are related.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1981

ID Number: 2017.3153.07
nonaccession number: 2017.3153
catalog number: 2017.3153.07

Berenice Abbott's photograph, Pendulum (Small Arc), is a stop-motion photograph.

Description (Brief): Berenice Abbott's photograph, Pendulum (Small Arc), is a stop-motion photograph. Although the photographer is more well-known for her 1930s abstracted views of New York City's architecture, she wanted to improve the quality of photography for scientists.; Abbott devised apparatus and techniques to capture various phenomena. Beginning in 1958, she created photographs for the Physical Science Study Committee, a program to reform high school physics teaching. This picture illustrating the swing of a pendulum appeared in 1969 in The Attractive Universe: Gravity and the Shape of Space.
Description: During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career. An American expatriate, Abbott enjoyed the company of some of the great twentieth century writers and artists, photographing individuals such as Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim and James Joyce. One of the critical elements of Abbott’s portraiture was a desire to neither enhance nor interfere with the sitter. She instead wished to allow the personality of her subject to dictate the form of the photograph, and would often sit with her clients for several hours before she even began to photograph them. This straight-forward approach to photography characterized Abbott’s work for the duration of her career.; Thematically and technically, Abbott’s work can be most closely linked to documentary photographer Eugène Atget (COLL.PHOTOS.000016), who photographed Paris during the early 1900s. Abbott bought a number of his prints the first time she saw them, and even asked him to set some aside that she planned to purchase when she had enough money. After his death in 1927, Abbott took it upon herself to publicize Atget’s work to garner the recognition it deserved. It was partly for this reason she returned to the United States in 1928, hoping to find an American publisher to produce an English-language survey of Atget’s work. Amazed upon her arrival to see the changes New York had undergone during her stay in Paris, and eager to photograph the emerging new metropolis, Abbott decided to pack up her lucrative Parisian portrait business and move back to New York.; The status and prestige she enjoyed in Paris, however, did not carry over to New York. Abbott did not fit in easily with her contemporaries. She was both a woman in a male-dominated field and a documentary photographer in the midst of an American photographic world firmly rooted in Pictorialism. Abbott recalls disliking the work of both photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his then protégé Paul Strand when she first visited their exhibitions in New York. Stieglitz, along with contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen, tended to romanticize the American landscape and effectively dismissed Abbott’s straight photography as she saw it. Not only was Atget’s work rejected by the Pictorialists, but a series of critical comments she made towards Stieglitz and Pictorialism cost Abbott her professional career as a photographer. Afterwards, she was unable to secure space at galleries, have her work shown at museums or continue the working relationships she had forged with a number of magazine publications.; In 1935, the Federal Art Project outfitted Abbott with equipment and a staff to complete her project to photograph New York City. The benefit of a personal staff and the freedom to determine her own subject matter was unique among federally funded artists working at that time. The resulting series of photographs, which she titled Changing New York, represent some of Abbott’s best-known work. Her photographs of New York remain one of the most important twentieth century pictorial records of New York City. Abbott went on to produce a series of photographs for varied topics, including scientific textbooks and American suburbs. When the equipment was insufficient to meet her photographic needs, as in the case of her series of science photographs, she invented the tools she needed to achieve the desired effect. In the course of doing so, Abbott patented a number of useful photographic aids throughout her career including an 8x10 patent camera (patent #2869556) and a photographer’s jacket. Abbott also spent twenty years teaching photography classes at the New School for Social Research alongside such greats as composer Aaron Copland and writer W.E.B. DuBois.; Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Abbott’s career was the printing of Eugène Atget’s photographs, one of the few instances in which one well-known photographer printed a large number of negatives made by another well-known photographer. The struggle to get Atget’s photographs the recognition they deserved was similar to Abbott’s efforts to chart her own path by bringing documentary photography to the fore in a Pictorialist dominated America. Though she experienced varying levels of rejection and trials in both efforts, her perseverance placed her in the position she now holds as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.; The Bernice Abbott collection consists of sixteen silver prints. The photographs represent a range of work Abbott produced during her lifetime, including her early portraiture work in Paris, her Changing New York series, Physics and Route 1, U.S.A. series.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1950s

photographer: Abbott, Berenice

ID Number: PG.69.216.15
catalog number: 69.216.15
accession number: 288852

C. A. Robert Lundin (1880-1962) spent his early working life with Alvan Clark & Sons, the famous telescope firm in Cambridgeport, Mass., where his father, Carl Axel Robert Lundin, had been employed since 1874.

Description: C. A. Robert Lundin (1880-1962) spent his early working life with Alvan Clark & Sons, the famous telescope firm in Cambridgeport, Mass., where his father, Carl Axel Robert Lundin, had been employed since 1874. The younger Lundin took charge of the Clark optical department in 1915, established his own telescope firm in 1929, and became head of Warner & Swasey’s new optical shop in 1933. Honors included Fellowships in the Royal Astronomical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.; This handsome studio photograph shows Lundin as prosperous and middle-aged, more ready to close a deal than polish a lens. The “BACHRACH” mark refers to the firm that was established in Baltimore in 1868 and that remains in business to this day.; Ref: John W. Briggs and Donald E. Osterbrock, “The Challenges and Frustrations of a Veteran Astronomical Optician: Robert Lundin, 1880-1962,” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 1 (1998): 93-103.
Location: Currently not on view

maker: Bachrach

ID Number: 1986.0667.02
catalog number: 1986.0667.02
accession number: 1986.0667

This photograph depicts an exhibit which shows, among other things, the instrument for calculating all trigonometric functions co-invented by Frank Crampton.For related object, see MA.335540. The image is a duplicate of MA.317954.02.Currently not on view

Description: This photograph depicts an exhibit which shows, among other things, the instrument for calculating all trigonometric functions co-invented by Frank Crampton.; For related object, see MA.335540. The image is a duplicate of MA.317954.02.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1970-11

ID Number: MA.317954.03
accession number: 317954
catalog number: 317954.03

This framed photograph of a Hollerith tabulating system shows a tabulating machine, card punch with cards, and sorter, all distributed by the Tabulating Machine Company of New York.The tabulating machine has a metal base and four rows of counters, with ten counters in each row.

Description: This framed photograph of a Hollerith tabulating system shows a tabulating machine, card punch with cards, and sorter, all distributed by the Tabulating Machine Company of New York.; The tabulating machine has a metal base and four rows of counters, with ten counters in each row. Right of it a card punch and a pile of punch cards are on a separated metal table. A sticker above these reads: Tabulating Machine Company. Next to these is the sorter, which appears to have two rows of vertical compartments, with 13 compartments in each row. The photograph is matted and has a glass cover and wooden frame.; A sheet that once covered the back of the frame reads: WOOD & FORSYTH’S (/) ART STORE (/) Frames Made to Order (/) 1200 S Street. (/) WASHINGTON, D.C.; Electrical circuitry on the stand holding the card punch resembles MA.335637.; The Tabulating Machine Company was in business from 1896 to 1911, hence the rough date of 1900 assigned to the object.; Compare objects MA.312895, MA.312896 and MA.312897.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1900

ID Number: MA.317982.05
accession number: 317982
catalog number: 317982.05

This framed and matted photograph shows a laboratory bench. On it is a rolling metal platform, with wheels, that moves along a track. A weight at one end and screw underneath apparently control the motion of the carriage.

Description: This framed and matted photograph shows a laboratory bench. On it is a rolling metal platform, with wheels, that moves along a track. A weight at one end and screw underneath apparently control the motion of the carriage. A mechanism on the right probably controls the motion of the screw. A metal bar attached to the front of the bench carries two movable microscopes. Over and behind the carriage are two metal bars, both of which appear to have rows of evenly spaced metal plugs along the edges. A stylus is above the carriage.; Further apparatus is mounted on the wall on the left. Also on the wall are two photographs, one of a telescope and one of the pier of a telescope.These may be photographs of the 36-inch refractor at Lick Observatory in California. A third photograph shows unidentified apparatus, which may be a tabulating machine. Several light bulbs in the photograph apparently date roughly from 1880 to 1900.; A faint mark at the center of the photograph has been interpreted to read: Geo M Bond. A mark in pencil on the backing of the photograph (now loose from the object) reads: Tab Mach Co.; In the 1880s the mechanical engineer George M. Bond designed a comparator for William M. Rogers of the Harvard College Observatory to use in comparing standards of length. The Tabulating Machine Company was formed by Herman Hollerith in 1896 and merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1911. Hence the rough date of 1900 assigned to the image.; Reference:; Leon E. Truesdell, The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census 1890–1940, Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1965, pp. 43–44.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1900

ID Number: MA.317982.06
accession number: 317982
catalog number: 317982.06

This photograph depicts an exhibit which shows, among other things, the instrument for calculating all trigonometric functions co-invented by Frank Crampton.For related object, see MA.335540.Currently not on view

Description: This photograph depicts an exhibit which shows, among other things, the instrument for calculating all trigonometric functions co-invented by Frank Crampton.; For related object, see MA.335540.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1970-11

ID Number: MA.317954.02
accession number: 317954
catalog number: 317954.02

C. A. Robert Lundin (1880-1962) took charge of the optical department of Alvan Clark & Sons in 1915, established his own telescope firm in 1929, and became head of Warner & Swasey’s new optical shop in 1933.

Description: C. A. Robert Lundin (1880-1962) took charge of the optical department of Alvan Clark & Sons in 1915, established his own telescope firm in 1929, and became head of Warner & Swasey’s new optical shop in 1933. His honors included fellowships in the Royal Astronomical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.; This snapshot shows Lundin examining one element of the objective lens of the 24-inch refracting telescope that was built by John A. Brashear and installed at Swarthmore College in 1911. A paper label on the back reads: “1941 January 14 C. A. Robert Lundin and flint component of Sproul Objective.”; Ref: John W. Briggs and Donald E. Osterbrock, “The Challenges and Frustrations of a Veteran Astronomical Optician: Robert Lundin, 1880-1962,” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 1 (1988): 93-103.; John A. Miller, “The Sproul Observatory of Swarthmore College,” Popular Astronomy 21 (1913): 253-262.; The Sproul Observatory of Swarthmore College. History and Description (Swarthmore, 1948).
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1941

ID Number: 1986.0667.03
catalog number: 1986.0667.03
accession number: 1986.0667

Currently not on view

Location: Currently not on view

ID Number: PG.77.82.06
accession number: 1977.0917
catalog number: 77.82.6

These three photographs relate to the hydraulic slide rule developed for calculations relating to pumps and pipelines at the Georgia Iron Works (2009.0100.01). A snapshot from 1961 shows the slide rule as it was first designed. A second image shows the designer, Danforth W.

Description: These three photographs relate to the hydraulic slide rule developed for calculations relating to pumps and pipelines at the Georgia Iron Works (2009.0100.01). A snapshot from 1961 shows the slide rule as it was first designed. A second image shows the designer, Danforth W. Hagler, in an office in the 1960s. The third, which is somewhat later, shows Hagler at the console of an IBM 1130 computer. In that photograph, an oversized version of the slide rule he invented is mounted on the wall.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1960s
date received: 2009

ID Number: 2009.0100.03
accession number: 2009.0100
catalog number: 2009.0100.03

This image shows University of Iowa faculty member Richard P. Baker, a mathematician who made numerous geometric models that survive in the Mathematics collections of the National Museum of American History.Currently not on view

Description: This image shows University of Iowa faculty member Richard P. Baker, a mathematician who made numerous geometric models that survive in the Mathematics collections of the National Museum of American History.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1935

ID Number: 1985.0820.01
accession number: 1985.0820
catalog number: 1985.0820.01

Professor Henry Draper created the "Full Moon" stereoview in the 1860s. Published by Charles Bierstadt, it is one in a series of cards showing the moon in its different phases. Stereoviews were a visual way to learn about the world.

Description: Professor Henry Draper created the "Full Moon" stereoview in the 1860s. Published by Charles Bierstadt, it is one in a series of cards showing the moon in its different phases. Stereoviews were a visual way to learn about the world. Draper and Bierstadt used this format to distribute some of the first photographs of the moon to scholars and interested laymen alike.

Date made: ca 1860s

maker: Draper, Henry; Bierstadt, Charles

ID Number: 1999.0025.002
accession number: 1999.0025

Science & Mathematics

ComputerLand Photograph

ComputerLand Photograph

Agassiz, Peirce, and Patterson

ComputerLand Photograph

ComputerLand NYC Store Images

Pendulum (Small Arc)

C. A. Robert Lundin

Photograph of an Exhibit Showing Crampton Trigonometric Calculating Instrument

Framed Photograph of a Hollerith Tabulating System

Framed Photograph of Apparatus of Herman Hollerith

Photograph of Exhibit of Work of Frank Crampton at Cochise College

C. A. Robert Lundin

Medical Students with Cadaver

Three Photographs Related to the GIW Hydraulic Slide Rule

Photograph of Richard Philip Baker

Stereoview of a Full Moon