Computers & Business Machines
Imagine the loss, 100 years from now, if museums hadn't begun preserving the artifacts of the computer age. The last few decades offer proof positive of why museums must collect continuously—to document technological and social transformations already underway.
The museum's collections contain mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, and handheld devices. Computers range from the pioneering ENIAC to microcomputers like the Altair and the Apple I. A Cray2 supercomputer is part of the collections, along with one of the towers of IBM's Deep Blue, the computer that defeated reigning champion Garry Kasparov in a chess match in 1997. Computer components and peripherals, games, software, manuals, and other documents are part of the collections. Some of the instruments of business include adding machines, calculators, typewriters, dictating machines, fax machines, cash registers, and photocopiers
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Harvard Mark I Control Panel, IBM ASCC
- Description
- This is a small part of one of the first machines that could be programmed to carry out calculations automatically. Initially designed to solve scientific problems, it was used during World War II to carry out computations for the United States Navy. It was a one-of-a-kind machine. After the war, IBM would greatly expand its activity in computing to include electronic computers. Harvard began one of the first degree programs in computer science. People who had worked on the Mark I, such as Grace Murray Hopper, also went to work for other early computer manufacturers. More generally, many scholars and ordinary people first learned about "giant brains," as early computers were called, through workshops and press releases of the Harvard Computation Laboratory.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- MA.323579
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323579
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Electromechnical Computer Components, ASSC Mark I Relays
- Description
- These relays are components of the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) Mark I. The dimensions given are those of each relay. Each has a black bakelite frame and a metal frame inside this. There are two single coils, covered with a black covering. There are two plugs and forty short prongs on one side of each relay. Most relays are stamped with numbers and letters on the outside metal side.
- Compare 324285.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- 1983.3006.03
- nonaccession number
- 1983.3006
- catalog number
- 1983.3006.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Electromechnical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Relay
- Description
- This is a component of BM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) Mark I computer. It has a black bakelite frame with metal interior and side. There is a single coil in the frame. A single plug and sixteen prongs extend from one side. The coil is wrapped with a white covering.
- Compare 324282.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- Harvard University
- ID Number
- 1983.3006.02
- nonaccession number
- 1983.3006
- catalog number
- 1983.3006.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Control Panel, Bell Telephone Laboratories Model 5 Computer
- Description
- This control panel is a small part of a very large programmable calculator built by Bell Telephone Laboratories of New York for the U.S. Army. By the mid-twentieth century, improving communications required complicated calculations. In order to improve the clarity and range of long distance voice signals, George Stibitz, a research mathematician at Bell Labs, needed to do calculations using complex numbers. Stibitz and Bell Labs engineer Sam Williams completed a machine for this purpose in 1939–it later was called the Bell Labs Model I. With the outbreak of World War II, Stibitz and Bell Labs turned their attention to calculations related to the aiming and firing of antiaircraft guns. Stibitz proposed a new series of relay calculators that could be programmed by paper tape to do more than one kind of calculation. The BTL Model 5 was the result. The machine consisted of 27 standard telephone relay racks and assorted other equipment. It had over 9000 relays, a memory capacity of 30 7-digit decimal numbers, and took about a second to multiply 2 numbers together. Two copies of the machine were built. This one was used by the U.S. Army for ballistics work at Aberdeen, Maryland and then at Fort Bliss, Texas. Machines that used relays were reliable, but slower than those using vacuum tubes, and soon gave way to electronic computers.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- Date made
- 1947
- maker
- Bell Telephone Laboratories
- ID Number
- 1987.0821.01
- accession number
- 1987.0821
- catalog number
- 1987.0821.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Electromechanical Computer Component, ASSC Mark I Storage Counter
- Description
- This component from the Automatic Sequence Controled Calculator, an electromechanical computer built by IBM for Harvard University, is stored in a plexiglass case.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1944
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1988.3099.02
- nonaccession number
- 1988.3099
- catalog number
- 1989.3099.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
