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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Book, Office Equipment Catalogue, First Annual Edition
- Description
- The full title of this catalogue well reflects its content. It is: Office Equipment Catalogue A Compilation of Condensed and Standardized Catalogue Data of Office Appliances and Devices, Furniture and Equipment, Office Supplies, Buisness Systems and Business Services, that contribute directly or indirectly to Office Efficiency, the uses of which are not obvious, with a General Directory of such Equipment, Materials, Systems and Services, Classified and Cross-Indexed, and A Book Section - Cataloguing and briefly describing a list of the Most Important Business Books selected by the Publishers, for the convenient reference of practising [sic] Accountants, Purchasing Agents, Systematizers and Office Executives." This copy of the book is from the Patent Library of the Marchant Calculating Machine Company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1924
- maker
- Office Equipment Catalogue, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1979.3084.159
- catalog number
- 1979.3084.159
- nonaccession number
- 1979.3084
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Notebooks, American Office Machines Research Service, Vol I and II
- Description
- These two spring binders offer a cumulative record of changes in the market for office machines in the United States over the years immediately preceding World War II. American Office Machines Research Service on New York offered both a monthly notice (those numbered 1 to 38, dating from August, 1937 to August, 1940 are included), an introduction to different kinds of office machines, and detailed descriptions of available models, updated as new models were released. Adding machines, calulating machines, cash registers, typewriters, filing equipment, and time recorders are among the tkinds of objects included.The dimensions are for each of the two volumes.
- Compare 1979.3084.162 and 1984.3084.163.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1937-1940
- maker
- Office Machines Research, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1979.3084.162
- catalog number
- 1979.3084.162
- nonaccession number
- 1979.3084
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Parts Catalog, Underwood Sundstrand Portable Electric Adding Machines Fraction & L-S-D
- Description
- This well-worn catalog is stapled together and punched along the left side. A "Serviceman's Part Order" is stapled to one page.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1940-02-09
- maker
- Underwood Elliot Fisher Company
- ID Number
- 1990.3188.01
- nonaccession number
- 1990.3188
- catalog number
- 1990.3188.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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