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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LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.2
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.2
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.3
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.3
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Punch Card Marked DO-5081, Received with Key Punch
- Description
- This eighty-column paper punch card is rectangular, with the upper left corner cut off. It is punched symmetrically. Text along the top reads: MANUAL KEY PUNCH - ABOUT 70 YEARS OLD. A form number printed along the bottom reads: DO-5081. Further text reads: PRINTED IN U.S.A.
- Received with card punch with museum number 1987.0601.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1987.0601.01.02
- accession number
- 1987.0601
- catalog number
- 1987.0601.01.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.6
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.6
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- Maker
- IBM
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.1
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.1
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.5
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.5
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
LOCI-2 Punch Card
- Description
- This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.
- For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965 or later
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1980.0096.03.4
- catalog number
- 1980.0096.03.4
- accession number
- 1980.0096
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM 5081 Punch Card Used with Punch Card Gauge
- Description
- This standard eighty-column paper punch card was received with a punch card gauge (1990.0113.01). A mark near the bottom edge at the left reads IBM5081.
- These materials were used in Robert A. McConnell's research on parapsychology.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- Maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.0113.03
- accession number
- 1990.0113
- catalog number
- 1990.0113.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
UCLA Computer Club Punch Card
- Description
- In the 1960s, when UCLA (the University of California at Los Angeles) purchased a commercial computer from IBM, students formed a club where they could share their knowledge of the new machines. At that time, data and programs were entered onto computers using punched cards like this one. The decoration of the card was up to the individual customer. This is a pink eighty-column punch card for an IBM computer. Each column contains the digits from 0 to 9. The background of the card shows the head of a moose propped in front of a log. An open book lies on the left, and magnetic tape is in the mouth of the moose.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1996.0142.25
- catalog number
- 1996.0142.25
- accession number
- 1996.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Order Punch Card with Synchronous Motor Patent Papers
- Description
- This orange punch card, used by the U.S. Patent Office, is attached to a copy of the patent papers the card describes. The card has 53 columns versus the standard IBM 80-column punch card. It is marked PO-33, PATENT ORDER (Letter Unit) on the left edge, and IBM D7 7517 on the bottom edge.
- The following information is punched and printed on the card: the patent number (1913948), customer number (11530), month (01), day (29), and serv. code (6M).
- The patent papers requested (5 pages) were for patent number 1,913,948 filed on May 2, 1932 by David Perlman for a Synchronous Motor. His patent was for improvements in electrically operated time-pieces.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 2017.3122.03
- nonaccession number
- 2017.3122
- catalog number
- 2017.3122.03
- patent number
- 1,913,948
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Punch Card Used to Retrieve U.S. Patent Papers
- Description
- This cream colored punch card has 53 columns versus the standard IBM 80 column punch card. The card is marked PO-33, PATENT ORDER (Letter Unit) on the left edge.
- The following information is punched and printed on the card: patent number (1256951), quantity (001), customer number (002775), serv. code (02), month (1), day (75).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2017.3122.04
- nonaccession number
- 2017.3122
- catalog number
- 2017.3122.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM 749809 Punch Card, Employee's Statement of Earnings and Deductions, U.S. Naval Gun Factory
- Description
- This punch card gives a statement of earnings and deductions for an employee of the U.S. Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. in March of 1947. The card itself is not punched, although it lists a tag number, gross earnings, deductions, net pay, and the pay date. A mark on the card reads: EMPLOYEE' S STATEMENT OF EARNINGS AND DEDUCTIONS (/) U.S. NAVAL GUN FACTORY (/) WASHINGTON, D.C.
- The object was collected from the files of departing curator David K. Allison. It's origin is unknown.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1947
- 1947
- ca 1947
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 2015.3169.07
- nonaccession number
- 2015.3169
- catalog number
- 2015.3169.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM D10687 Punch Card Used with IBM Port-a-Punch
- Description
- This eighty-column paper punch card has serrations for easy punching of holes. The columns are divided into eight fields for entering data. A mark along the right edge reads: IBM D10687 Port-A-Punch General Purpose 8 Field. The card was designed for use with an IBM Port-A-Punch (see 1990.0113,02). Several similar cards received at the same time are stored with the object.
- The materials in this accession were used in Robert A. McConnell's research on parapsychology.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1960s
- Maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.0113.04
- accession number
- 1990.0113
- catalog number
- 1990.0113.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM 811970 Production and Inventory Control Punch Card
- Description
- This eighty-column paper punch card is tan with a green stripe across the bottom. There is space for punches and for entering text. Fields include invoice number, qantity ordered or shipped, quantity manufacturing, customer name, schedule date, state, office number, customer code number, invoice number, and date schedule.
- Six round holes are punched in the card, although these do not fit the design of numbers in the columns.
- The card was received with tabulating machine 1990.0693.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1930
- 1930 roughly
- ca 1930
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1990.0693.01.03
- catalog number
- 1990.0693.01.03
- accession number
- 1990.0693
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Punch Card Used at the Southern Railway Company
- Description
- Herman Hollerith began manufacturing tabulating machines to compile statistics to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The nation only compiles a census every ten years, so Hollerith sought business from foreign governments and from commercial customers.
- As early as 1895, the New York Central began using tabulating equipment to track goods moved by the railroad. Hollerith radically redesigned the punch card, putting information in columns with the numbers from 0 to 9. Several columns of numbers comprised a field, which contained information on a single matter. By 1907, the Central was an established customer and other railroads adopted machine accounting. The Southern Railway Company used this 45-column card. It has fields for the date, the receiving station, the waybill number, the code, the forwarding station, the junction point, "Com.", "C.L.", freight, charges, and prepaid amounts.
- Reference:
- G. D. Austrian, Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Pioneer of Information Processing, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 111–141, 250–251.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- 1910, roughly
- 1910 roughly
- maker
- Tabulating Machine Company
- ID Number
- MA.317982.01
- accession number
- 317982
- catalog number
- 317982.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
IBM 1441139x Punch Card Advertising the IBM 602A Calculating Punch
- Description
- This white paper punch card demonstrates how an average hourly rate of pay can be calculated for a worker paid partly on piece work and partly on day work, receiving a bonus. It was intended as advertising for the IBM 602A calculating punch.
- The left half of the card has text describing the product. It reads in part: ARITHMETIC (/) CALCULATIONS ARE PERFORMED IN (/) ONE OPERATION BY THE NEW (/)TYPE 602A CALCULATING PUNCH. The right side has columns of holes to be punched that are numbered from 37 to 80.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1948
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- 1995.3080.01
- nonaccession number
- 1995.3080
- catalog number
- 1995.3080.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Remington Rand P-11782 Punch Card
- Description
- This 90-column punch card has columns in two rows. Round punches indicate the letters from A through Z and the digits from 0 to 9 in the top row, and the digits 0 to 9 and letters A to Z in the bottom row.
- Reference:
- Sperry Rand Corporation, Glossary Systems Design and Programming Terminology, 1960, p. 5. This is 2015.3097.03. The card was received in this glossary.
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Remington Rand Univac
- ID Number
- 2015.3097.02
- nonaccession number
- 2015.3097
- catalog number
- 2015.3097.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
